conference on the budget so that they can negotiate, both sides can negotiate on the issues that are important for them to focus on, on entitlement programs and discretionary spending, on tax reform, with the hope that they can come up with some kind of deal that could deal with both the deficit and the sequester problem. that is a way to try to put government back in the place it should be. >> that sounds like a pretty reasonable idea to get through this immediate crisis on the government shutdown, raising the debt ceiling. why aren't they, both sides, accepting your advice? i assume they accept the possibility of a two-tier program like that as well. >> well, i would hope that they would. i mean, i think right now, you know, both sides are kind of caught up in trying to stare the other side down, and i understand the politics of that, but you know, this shutdown is doing terrible damage to this