Kent Conrad: “We are not going to balance the budget on 12 percent of the budget, on 12 cents out of every dollar.”

We did a whole series of things in our Social Security reform not to discourage people from working, but to encourage them to continue working if they are able to do so.

That I like to call the 'Conrad provision.'

The surviving spouse provisions are especially important with regard to offsetting some of the unfairness that exists elsewhere.

We also increase the payroll tax very modestly, from the current combined rate of 12.4 percent to 13.4 percent over 10 years.