I take this responsibility seriously, and I am committed to making sure our children and our grandchildren can count on Social Security just like seniors and individuals with disabilities do today.

It is up to Congress to make the tough choices based on the best, most accurate information we can find and is available.

Social Security is in trouble. And the longer we wait, the tougher it becomes to fix it.

So what we have to do is we have to show political courage here, and I am very, very hopeful that this committee through these hearings is preparing to do exactly that.

Once we resolve it, let's get it resolved and put it to bed.

Too many programs right now are unsustainable. They were unsustainable from their very concept.

The reason it is not working is because we don't have an economy that is functioning right now.

First of all, Social Security is a business. We have to have more money coming in than going out.

If we don't get more people back to work, if we don't have a dynamic and robust economy, all of this talk that we are having is just that.

Well, good morning and welcome to today's hearing on modernizing Social Security's information technology infrastructure.

If we can't fix this, shame on us.