I am going to count on Senator Sanders to be one of our lead persons in our hearings going into next year.

Each year of raising the retirement age is a 6.5 percent cut in benefits that are already very modest.

You should both be commended for introducing S. Res. 664, your Sense of the Senate Resolution opposing any benefit cuts.

Most Americans are making what you make--$35,000, $40,000, $45,000, $50,000, $55,000 a year. That is the middle class of America.

There is no rationale for providing a larger tax break to a millionaire than to a Wal-Mart cashier for the same dollar contribution to a 401(k) plan.

Do you think giving workers that kind of information would, No. 1, encourage retirement savings?

The average benefit is about $14,000--less than a minimum wage income--and Social Security provides more than half the income for 55 percent of seniors.

I hope this committee will recognize that the retirement income deficit we are leaving for the Gen Xers is at least as serious as the burden of debt for our grandchildren.

Doesn't come as any surprise to me.

Congress and the Obama administration will make matters worse for most Americans if they raise the Social Security retirement age.

The goal is, or ought to be, to preserve full benefits and to maximize the retirement income of the tens of millions of households that depend on Social Security.

The system of relying on tax subsidies to expand the employer-based retirement system has proven a failure.

It is time for our Nation to face the retirement crisis head-on.

The most important thing I can say is that cutting Social Security benefits in this context would be disastrous.

Mr. President, how much time do we have remaining? The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has 6 minutes remaining.

Mr. President, again, I don't know where all of these figures come from, how many pages of regulations per page on the bill, and all that kind of stuff. I have in front of me the Federal Register of Thursday, June 17, 2010. What we are…

So I say to my friends, we should vote this down and move ahead with health care reform and protect the consumers of America. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on September 29, 2010, at 2:30 p.m., to conduct a hearing entitled ``A Comparison of…