balloons. the contentious part we ve been dealing with that from day one. i don t think it should have been rejected out of hand. we know where the republicans are coming from to the president getting a chunk of tax increases. here s the irony, neil. the only way to get something done is by accident. like sequester. they cobble something together that both say won t go through, they sign it off and it goes throu through. then it doesn t do nearly the harm. it s being applied in a way that s unfortunate. i think americans are saying golly, the government did have 2% they could cut. you know, at this point, it s so disappointing. people forget why our credit rating was downgraded, in part to these kind of shenanigans you re talking about. the watchers, the viewers, the constituents on both sides will love to see something done. we got into this before. but this notion in any negotiation, people are remembering the last
and together with president reagan gave us the great strategic piece that we re enduring today. i mean, it was a fantastic achievement. john, you were two people of like minds. as you talked about sacrifice and conveying that image, did you mean what you say, you say what you mean. but out of europe today, austerity to them is more about hiking taxes than it is about any real cutting, and i m wondering if we re getting the wrong impression of austerity. there s not a lot of cutting going on. there is a lot of taxing going on. well, yes, but taxing is a sort of back handed cut. you ve got two things going on in europe. you ve got the general europeans who want to be more like the akg low americans and inflate money. and the others who medicine is austerity. it s a question of who wins within europe. i personally believe that germany will win in the end and europe will go through a period