he, is that who we are as a people? i mean, we re going to have to have those debates. particularly if it turns out that making those cuts doesn t really make a big dent in long term debt and decifits, then i think the american people may conclude, you know, let s have a more balanced approach. but that s what we re going to be talking about over the next couple of months. as i said, i know everybody would like to see it get resolved today. it probably will not be. that s a fair prediction. all right, i m going to take one last question here. jackie coombs. thank you mr. president. i had almost given up there. oh, don t give up! you ve correctly suggested that the media can be impatient about you seeing both sides come to a deal but this is your third budget, your third year of your presidency. you said many times that you d rather be a one-party
and more efficiency, to take just one example, we ll give we ll save billions of dollars by getting rid of 14,000 office buildings, lots, and government-owned properties we no longer need, and make sure special interests are not larding up legislation with special projects, i pledged to veto any bills that contain earmarks. still, even as we cut waste and inefficiency, this budget freeze will also require us to make some tough choices. it will mean freezing the salaries of hard working federal employees for the next two years. it will mean cutting things that i dare about deeply, like community action programs for low income communities, and we have some conservation programs that are going to be scaled back. these are all programs that i wouldn t be cutting if we were in a better fiscal situation, but we re not. we also know that cutting annual domestic spending alone won ting enough to meet our long term fiscal challenges. that s what the bipartisan fiscal commission conc