on the other hand, unicom is kind of a narrow successive. a lot of people, have you pointed perspectives were not represented by that news broadcast. i'm with you that it was incredibly simple. that i cannot argue with, so thanks. >> report on things like kennedy affairs, now we have from gary hart on, you know, constant surveillance to see the president are up to anything that may be are not exactly civil in their personal lives. >> that's right. >> i agree with you that probably we didn't get as many viewpoints that we are getting today, but when it degenerate into name-calling like calling people idiots on fox, and stuff like that, that's not really good -- let's see, role models. >> and it doesn't lead to more constructive political discourse that would help us solve problems, whether health care, social security, energy, water, transportation, education. take your pick of social problems. and again, that's what it's all about is try to develop the kind of civil constructive discourse so we can climb our way out of at least some of these

unicom on our trendlines we couldn't get to a balanced budget until 2035, but we thought it was more important to have those lines, tried to converge at a relatively low level because this challenge is not going to go away. it's not as though in 2035 we're going to be on easy street. there will be additional demands that come, and that if we sell into a high level now, we'll be in a world of hurt down the road. >> rudy, i remember there was something called penders law. at the tax much higher, our taxes that much higher than they do, that people would revolt. they wouldn't stand for it. has that changed? cavalry get to plateau of? >> i have no memory of penner's law. [laughter] >> probably a feature of old age. >> it is remarkable, historically, how constant the ratio of tax to gdp have been. they have very between 17 and 19%, except for a very few aberrations for the last 50 years. and average somewhere between 18, 18.5%. i can't really explain why that has happened. i don't really think that's a you should think of it. you can think of a government at 21% of gdp that's terribly was

unicom the clearest examples that come to my mind on the progressive side are the supreme court nomineesand how all the progressive organizations really get going, advocate and lobby, frankly. but i don't think there's ever any guarantee, and if -- i just -- money can be a dirty business if you sell it that way, but i think as a fundraiser you have to make a decision that you are not selling it that way. and i have run into instances where, you know, a potential donor will call up and say, i will max out, get my whole family to max out your candidate so-and-so if they will support whatever it is. and i think this happened in the florida senate race 2006 actually. and we have to say no. we don't want that money. that's not what we are about. >> do you think emily's list support makes pro-choice voters out of women without pro-choice otherwise? the? >> that's an interesting question. i think that, yes, there are people out our questionnaire is very simple. a lot of organizations, in order to give the organizations support, have a questionnaire. some of them, you've seen them, some of them

unicom the clearest examples that come to my mind on the progressive side are the supreme court nomineesand how all the progressive organizations really get going, advocate and lobby, frankly. but i don't think there's ever any guarantee, and if -- i just -- money can be a dirty business if you sell it that way, but i think as a fundraiser you have to make a decision that you are not selling it that way. and i have run into instances where, you know, a potential donor will call up and say, i will max out, get my whole family to max out your candidate so-and-so if they will support whatever it is. and i think this happened in the florida senate race 2006 actually. and we have to say no. we don't want that money. that's not what we are about. >> do you think emily's list support makes pro-choice voters out of women without pro-choice otherwise? the? >> that's an interesting question. i think that, yes, there are people out our questionnaire is very simple. a lot of organizations, in order to give the organizations support, have a questionnaire. some of them, you've seen them, some of them