approach and you begin by closing some of these tax loopholes and tax breaks for special interests, that means that the burden is not only on seniors or on the middle class. and so it's unfortunate that our republican colleagues continue to fight the idea of closing tax breaks, for example, for big oil companies in order to help reduce our deficit. if they would come to the table and take that kind of balanced approach, we could reduce our long-term deficits in a sensible manner. as you know, it would be a big mistake to do deep austerity cuts now and that's why allowing the sequester to take place would be very bad. we have seen in places like england and other european countries that tried that strategy. it tipped them back to recession. >> congressman chris van hollen, thank you for your time. hope to see you soon. >> thank you. >> thank you. let's bring in the political panel. democratic strategist chris