be prudent to be putting the brakes on an economy that's already slowing. it's a huge problem in the medium to long term. you've got to deal with it and deficit. >> lakshman, great to have you on this morning. thanks for your time. >> thank you. other big news today, it's coming to us from cape canaveral, florida, where in less than 20 minutes nasa is scheduled to send the last space shuttle into orbit. the crew is on board, and they are all fueled up. they are ready to go. and mother nature is cooperating right now. this countdown is being held at t minus nine minutes from lift-off. the crew and all their support staff are going through their final checklist. the lift-off, which was threatened, as i said, by bad weather, is scheduled for 11:26 eastern time. my colleague tamron hall, host of msnbc's "news nation," is watching it all front and center from kennedy space center in florida. she's going to be anchoring our live coverage from there. also nbc's tom costello is going to be there as well with tamron. but let's start with tamron. mother nature finally cooperating, as i know, huh? >> you know, thomas, i'm taking