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. the fiscal cliff is important for a whole range of issues. it adds to the whole environment of intense uncertainty. you are asking people to make investors of their money or shareholders money at a time when nobody knows what the fiscal system will provide. connell: we talk to people on all sides of this debate. the conservative side represented by monica crowley. talking about the conversation changing from all of this from revenue to something about spending. from the business community's point of view, or you concerned? >> both are important. we need to address the fiscal cliff issue now. not december 301 or january 1. you'll get a lot of negative ahead of that. extend the tax treatment. extend the tax revisions. new found out for a period of time that will allow a real discussion about reform. connell: do you have to have a template in place or is it all right to just extend the current environment? >> i think what has been discussed is to come to some very broad agreement with goals for the relevant committees on the hill. that is good. that gives people a sense of where we are go
on the understanding of businesses. they operate in environments that most us won't accept. it's very risky, so every day they try to minimize their risk. here's the thing. the message to washington is make a policy if it's not great and get it out early. all the points you just mentioned are things that keep dragging and dragging, and it's just creating this malaise that is really hurting us. >> i understand what you're saying about there about uncertainty, but isn't that nature of our democracy? it's set up to have two sides and debate and change things to adjust to what's happening. it doesn't seem like that's a new phenomenon. would businesses prefer we have a dictatorship to set policy? >> can i say yes? i'm not going to say yes. here's the thing, look, it's true. remember, over the past 40 or 50 years, let's face it, the parties are the discourses getting much more poisonpoisono. people are so convinced they're completely right about everything. they're not coming to the table. it has dramatically changed in the last 30 years. also keep in mind that spending since 1954 -- i wasn't around then,

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