bartlett, who served as executive director of the joint economic committee, as a senior policy analyst in the reagan white house and as deputy assistant secretary of the treasury during george h.w. bush's administration. he is now a columnist for the fiscal times and a contributor for "the new york times," and he's the author of the new book "the benefit and the burden: tax reform, why we need it and what it will take." bruce, thank you very much for joining me tonight. >> happy to be here. >> bruce, what do you make of think theory that the worst thing that happened to reasonable tax policy in this country is that president bush was defeated in his re-election after agreeing to a tax increase compromise with democrats, and let me just stipulate, on a personal level, bill clinton beating president bush was one of the best things that ever happened to me in my own career. i was instantly elevated to running the finance committee in the senate under a democratic