. >> it certainly looks unhikely. and that's too bad. but let's distinguish degrees of bad. i still am confident, as the president has said, as senator mcconnell has said, that a default will be avoided. what the deal will be that will avoid a default is in some sense not the most important question relative to making absolutely certain that we avoid a default. that has to be the first priority. for me. second priority is making sure the economy grows. third priority is, which we need to address now and we're going to need to keep addressing over the next few years, is, bringing the level of spending in ou country d the vel of revenues in our country back into balance. >> ok. fair enough. what does larry summers think is the red line in which this administration, because it has made compromis it did not expect to make on the revenue side, has it not? >> three bottom lines. one, default must be avoided. and default must be pushed out of reach as a possibility until after the election. second, demand has to be supported through continuation of the payroll tax cuts and other me