My advice, sir, would be simple, the same advice as Christine Legarde, the new director of the IMF, has given to the United States, which is you need to extend the debt ceiling.

It makes no sense to have a tax code that encourages that leverage, at the same time as we try and pull it back rather ineffectively with regulation.

In any situation where a fiscal adjustment is required, such as in the United States today, I would suggest that you look at both revenue and expenditures.

Whether you like it or not, Senator, the Code impacts the leverage choice these firms make.

That is a systemic risk. That is pollution. That is a negative externality you should be taxing on.

I am proposing that you tax excessive leverage, because that is what generates the big negative.

Republicans and Democrats agree on this much: current benefits should not change for those in or near retirement.

The Social Security statement is one of the few government publications that reaches nearly every working-aged American.

Good morning to all of you. We are going to try to crank this hearing up on time, so I am going to bring the hearing to order.

What is wrong is cutting Social Security benefits for people who worked hard all their lives.

The benefit cuts Republicans have put on the table this year would have devastating consequences for today's seniors.

The Republican Study Committee has proposed raising the retirement age to age 70, with benefit cuts starting in just 3 years.

So you don't think they violated the law when they didn't send one in the mail.

With chronic unemployment, falling incomes, and so many young people unable to find work, nothing we do should make it harder for Americans to find good-paying jobs.

We can't tell people to stop getting older.

But young people deserve peace of mind, too.

The reality is there is simply not enough young workers to support the Baby Boomers who are retiring at the rate of 10,000 a day for the next 19 years.

Congress needs to act, and the sooner we do the sooner we can protect those who are vulnerable.

the Subcommittee will hold a hearing on Social Security's current benefit expenditures, proposed changes to future benefits and the impact those changes would have on the program, future beneficiaries, workers, and the economy.

$3 trillion is a lot of money. You can't pay benefits in bonds. Social Security needs cash.

We need to make sure Social Security is safe, secure and sustainable. Congress must act and the sooner we do so, the sooner we can protect those who are most vulnerable, including current retirees and those nearing retirement. And for…

Social Security is not broke, and it will not go bankrupt.

Social Security's ability to pay benefits to current beneficiaries would be 'severely compromised.'

Despite these tax increases, Social Security is still in trouble.

Social Security will be unable to pay benefits promised in the future, and how the program needs to be strengthened for generations to come.