hands. keep in mind, this is not a situation where the two parties are miles apart. we re in rough agreement about how much spending can be cut responsibly as a first step towards reducing our deficit. we agree on a process where the next step is a debate in the coming months on tax reform and entitlement reform, and i am willing and ready to have that debate. if we need to put in place an enforcement mechanism to hold us accountable for making the reforms, i will support that too if it s done in a smart and balanced way. so there are plenty of ways out of this mess. but we are almost out of time. i want to bring in cnn s joe johns to tell us where things stand at this moment. how is speaker boehner trying to reach his magic number of 217? randy, when i was listening to you at the top sounded like you were describing theater of the absurd. house republicans are inches closer to fixing their problem in the house of representatives. i think we have pictures now of the hou