you re not going to get a deal done without some sort of change to entitlements. specifically medicare. well, i m not so sure what that means when you say it s some sort of change. some sort of structural change to medicare? i m not sure that has to be on the table. i do think, though, that we do have to have some spending cuts and the president has acknowledged that, as well. but the basis of the problem is you have to have the republican party is intransigent about the idea of tax increases and the taxes will grow up after december 31st regardless of what happens. if you don t do anything, they ll go up. so you have to do something. you ll have 98% of the american people who will get a tax cut under president obama s proposal, 97% of american small businesses will get a tax cut. so why not come to a negotiated deal on the things that we agree on and put aside the other things. we don t thesely have to agree on those 2%. let s work on where there is some sort of compromisable