because in a two-party system, you have to, if you're going to make progress, otherwise you have stasis or gridlock. so we've had more gridlock and appropriation bills when i first came, no one put major bills on appropriation bills. and the committee was sacrisanct. nobody amended bills. the committee always supported their own committee's views, and now it's different. so it's very hard to make that change and keep the regular order of government going and, secondly, not risk a shutdown, which has happened in the past. >> sure has. let's turn to what's going to happen on tuesday, which is prime minister benjamin netanyahu coming and speaking before a joint meeting of congress. you and your fellow democratic senator dick durbin invited the prime minister to speak to a group of democrats and he declined that invitation. what do you make of that?