doug, do you think republicans would ever agree to revenue increase through closing loopholes? why protect hedge fund guys? both budgets are dead on arrival. neither has a chance of being adopted by the other side. the democrats don t really reduce the deficit. they do not take on entitlements. the republican budget, they fail to consider even as you asked, cutting or eliminating loopholes and trying to raise revenue that way. there is a basis in the numbers for a deal but it is not clear to me what either side wants. these people are so far away from each other and we keep saying over and over, simpson-bowles, simpson-bowles, simpson-bowles would give us something to work with but when paul ryan said, and i was stunned, look, we will cut the rate of growth, not the automatic growth spending of 3.9