end of the year, tax cuts expire. bunch of automatic spending cuts that go in the place. and what you need to do to help make sure the economy is strengthening is give american people more confidence the political leaders in washington will come together, make a compromise they need to make another substantial down payment on the long-term deficit production. bret: this afternoon, president obama signed a law making members of congress the exective branch and federal workers subject to the same insider trading stock laws as everyone else. the rules prohibit those people from profits from the nonpublic information learned on the job. stocks took a tumble today. the dow dropped 125. the s&p 500 lost 14. the nasdaq fell 45. gasoline was up a half penny overnight. the national average is now $3.93 a gallon. crude oil lost $2.50 to close under $102 a barrel for the first time since mid-february. now to oil and politics.