the economy. i hope that we extend the payroll tax cut as part of this agreement. now, it doesn't serve specifically the need for deficit reduction, but it certainly serves the need for us tstimulate the economy and have people buy more. right now we have a crisis of consumer confidence and i think it is brought on by the bad news out of washington. we have to share some of this blame. it is brought on by the fact that many people overborrowed before the recession set in. many times going deeply into debt. for example, in the 1990's, the average indebtedness of a family was 84% of their annual income. it reached -- by the year 2507 -- about 125%, a 15% increase in indebtedness. and now families facing that indebtedness are retrenching, holding back, not making commitments, and it's coming down to 112% and slowly back to where it should be. what we're trying to do is to give people some spending power to create more consumer and aggregate demand for goods and services for business growth in this country. so i hope that as we look at this deficit-reduction package, as important as it is, we understand that we are doing it at an economically dangerous time. when this recession still