families. administrator fugate is in new york today meeting with local officials as well as surveying damage and ongoing response and recovery efforts. the president, once again, directed his team to continue to bring all available resources to bear to support our state and local partners and not allow red tape or bury rock see to stand in the way of federal support to be provided. the president will continue to receive updates on the response and recovery efforts from his team. with that i'll take your questions. jim kunin. >> thanks jay. welcome to the lame duck session. we just heard the president say essentially two things. one is he's not wedded to every detail of his deficit reduction plan and is willing to compromise. he also insists on raising taxes on a threshold of 250,000 or above. he ran on a vow to increase taxes on the wealthiest to bill