families is a very useful thing, and it establishes a principal, which will that you can substitute general revenues in the social security trust fund xhshgs , which cuts social security. the extension of tax cuts is very bad tax policy and economic policy. it's totally ineffective. if you're extending it for two years under the duress of the situation that conrad explained a few minutes ago, i think the deal is defensible on the whole. >> professor, as you're wearing your economist hat as opposed to strategic, let's go over a point about the $250,000. that tax was established in 1993. in real dollar terms, $250,000 today working backwards to '93 would you have been $165,000 had that bracket been indexed for inflation as all brackets should be.