Let's talk about the debt ceiling problem. And let me ask that question again, how bad is that? Well, if, if, if it really. If it goes on a few days. I mean if we really don't get it resolved. Then therefore, it's absolutely terrible. I mean I, I, I've told my children that it takes 20 years to build a reputation and it takes 20 minutes to ruin it, and. Five minutes. Pardon me? Five minutes. Well, particularly, some of my kids. [ LAUGH ] But we have spent 237 years since 1776 building a reputation. You know, as the most wonderful country on, on Earth. And one that's entrusted with having the reserve currency of the world. The one who's, when they say full faith and credit, nobody questions it. And, that could, well that is being put in jeopardy now. And it could be, it could be destroyed in a little while. And and great reputation. As I say i, i, it's like virginity it can be, it can be preserved but it can't be restored and the it's actually my dad told me that. [ LAUGH ] The so, it is, it is absolute foley to even think about it. And it will be, I mean the, the, I don't know what the words are to describe it, if we actually would default. I can't believe it will be done because it just is so stupid and I think that, the whole idea of a, of a debt limit is a terrible, terrible mistake. I mean, if you're gonna spend more than you take in, what are you going to do except raise the debt limit? And do you have a kind of scenario in mind as how, as to how we will get from here to actually solving this problem? Well I think the way to solve it is just to the say the debt ceiling, both parties to say the debt ceiling will never be used as a weapon of mass destruction. It's off the table. We'll argue about all kinds of other things and, and see how they come out. But, we are not going to say, we're not gonna threaten the world and our own citizens with the fact that we aren't gonna make good on our promises to achieve some other end. It, it, it, it, it doesn't make any sense. Well and, and seeing the political climate in Washington, can you imagine that happening in the next couple of days? I, I can imagine that the full thing playing out that way, although I wish it would. But maybe it will, maybe this has been the demonstration project we needed. I mean, we didn't know exactly what atomic weapons could do until we did them, and then it was an important, an incredible goal obviously at the time. But we decided we didn't want to do that again, no matter how serious things got. And, and, and I hope that comes out of it. But I think that what, I think basically that you really need the House Republicans to, to say, you know, this is a weapon we shouldn't have used and will. We think Obamacare, Obamacare is terrible. And you know, we'll fight it out and we'll beat you in 2014 in the elections and prove it and so on. But, but we will not, we will not say that the United States is gonna break it's promises to millions and millions of citizens in other countries and everything, just because we're not getting our way. Has this affected your decisions about running [ INAUDIBLE ] in anyway? Not when I oughta, we, we, we announce the acquisition this morning, it was all burn [ INAUDIBLE ] 3 a. m I think, for a purchase for 1. 1 billion. It didn't affect a dollar of the price that we put in. We did not put in a clause that said if, if Congress does this or that, cuz the deal hasn't closed for a while, the deal will be off or anything like that, that doesn't affect anything. This country is going to do well over time, I wanna participate in it. I'll participate through owning good businesses and if we get a chance to buy a good business, we buy it. And I will say this, Charlie Munger, my partner, and I have worked together now for 54 years. We've made a lot of decisions on buying businesses. We've made a lot of decisions on buying stocks. In the conversations that accompanied those decisions, neither one of us has ever once brought up anything of a macro nature, period. And it just doesn't make any difference. I don't know what's gonna happen next week, or next month, or next year. I know what's going to happen over 10 or 20 years.

Warren Buffett says that a great reputation is like virginity - it can be preserved but it can\'t be restored. Once you default, it\'s hard to go back.

Buffett: Debt limit is like virginity