deal with this. it's the number one problem facing the country. that's why i, frankly, was disappointed that the obama administration didn't come with a budget proposal that dealt with this continuing growth of entitlement. we have to deal with that. somehow we have to find the political will to deal with that. >> do you think president obama has led enough on this issue? >> i would like to have seen him be more forceful in saying yes, we're going to take care --we're going to confront these problems. i would have liked to have seen that. let me tell you a couple of things that could be done that don't solve the debt problem. one would be to do tax reform. i was in washington before the joint committee on taxation. chairman max baucus and senate on ways and means. i said the stars are aligned just like they were when ronald reagan last reformed the tax