Kent Conrad: “Extending the tax cuts is among the weakest in terms of helping boost economic growth, although it is positive.”

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…

It lifts the bottom. It asks those of us at the top to take a little less of an increase than we might have expected.

I would just say in this whole area of lifetime income options, there is a tremendous opportunity here.

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