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Hello and welcome to the Slate Political Gab Fest for the 10th of December 2010, the birth date of Anne McKeon.

I'm with David Plotz.

Who's Anne McKeon?

The formerly known as Anne McKeon, my wife.

Is her name, she's a McKeon?

Her middle name is McKinian.

Happy birthday, Ann.

Well, there you go.

She's 29?

That's right. She's 16, which makes us very happy. No, you don't want her to be 16. No, I know, you're right. What does he want her to be? 29 sounded pretty good to me. What is your optimum age? If you could be any age, what would it be, Emily? well so do I have to answer in terms of what I was doing at that moment? Clearly, it's an age that was already passed. Or should I just say, like, what, like, how am I choosing this? I mean, I loved my 20s. I would pick almost any time in my 20s. David? But I liked my 30s, too. It's just that in my 20s I was younger, which clearly must be better. I don't think I'd pick my teens.

What about you. David? But I liked my 30s, too. It's just that in my 20s, I was younger, which clearly must be better. I don't think I'd pick my teens. What about you, David? You definitely would not pick your teens. Definitely not my teens. I don't, I think, I like my late 20s. Yeah. My late 20s and early 30s. The question is, yes, were your children born? I I know. I'm having, I'm having such a like little family cuddly cocooning moment. I'm feeling like right now is, is my time. Yeah. It is your time. It is your time. It is my time. And this is the beer.

So we're going to talk today about the tax cut battle that is going on in Washington between the president and Democrats and the president and Republicans and Republicans and Democrats.

And then we're going to talk about Michael Bloomberg, who may or may not be running for office, but he is certainly presenting himself in the middle of the public debate about issues of the economy and the deficit.

And then finally we're going to talk about Prop 8 and the developments on that this week in California.

And Emily will tell us about all of that.

So there was a deal.

The president came out on Monday night and announced that he and Republican leaders had come up with a tax cut deal for extending the Bush tax cuts.

...