opportunity to do something big. we have a chance to stabilize america s finances for a decade, for 15 years or 20 years. if we re willing to seize the moment. what that would require would be some shared sacrifice and a balanced approach that says we re going to make significant cuts in domestic spending. and i have already said i m willing to take down domestic spending to the lowest percentage of our overall economy since dwight eisenhower. it also requires cuts in defense spending. and i ve said that in addition to the $400 billion that we ve already cut from defense spending we re willing to look for hundreds of billions more. it would require us taking on health care spending. and that includes looking at medicare and finding ways that we can stabilize the system so that it is available not just for this generation but for future generations. and it would require revenues. it would require, even as we re asking the person who needs a student loan or the senior citizen o
times and heard from the president today. the president believes the troop surge and the idea the drawdown will begin in 2011 is one of the reasons he thinks things are working better. i saw your statement where you say don t focus on a day, focus on progress on the ground. listen here, though, to the vice chair of the joint chiefs, does this concern you? what they ve said is that at 2011 to 2014 there is a drawdown. what will be negotiated is the rate that have drawdown. troops will come out. troops will come out. he s adamant about that. is that all right? general cartwright, i don t know where he s coming from but i ve always said if the enemy thinks you re leaving, they ll wait you out. i hope that we made very clear the operative year is 2014. let s move on to another big national security issue. the senate is considering the s.t.a.r.t. treaty, a nuclear arms reduction treaty. i know you ve had questions about the missile defense aspects of that but listen to
there in the campaign last in government? so when you put these posts up on rhett states, are you seeing the kind of response, the kind of activity you saw during the campaign or maybe are the establishment guys right? will that peter out? well, it depends. among the old guys and, frankly, a lot of the guys leaving office, will have no impact whatsoever. the younger guys, yes. then a lot won t be here until january. among people like marlon setsman who won a special election in indiana, guys like that are start to go get the message. there s a lot of wavering among house republicans now that the democrats are obstructing the tax compromise. a lot of them were thinking they could fall away from it. on the senate side, the mitch mcconnell proposal, the one-page idea, was because they haven t pa passed a budget this year. the first time since 1974 a budget hasn t passed congress, pass it over until next year and get rid of it. i suspect the earmarks have been over $100 million, we might