Kent Conrad: “If I could just finish by asking my colleague, what is the schedule for the creation and development of a permanent…”

We admire that, and I can say on both sides of the aisle, people recognize the job he did as Budget Committee Chairman.

I do, and I made that argument to the commission, and others on the commission made some of the points that you are making now.

Can I just respond quickly, Mr. Chairman, and say when Simpson-Bowles went down, a group of six of us in the Senate, three Democrats, three Republicans, were asked by leadership to see if we couldn't come up with a way forward to adopt the…

All the talk in the world doesn't matter if you don't actually get something done in the real world.