Kent Conrad: “We cannot let deficits act as if they are free money when we do spending increases and tax cuts.”

It takes guts to do that, and Chairman Arrington, you have certainly led the charge on having a commission.

We owe it to these men and women to strengthen our retirement system.

I wish I could look you in the eye and say, you know, if we just had the will, we could reverse this, and we could go back to a time when defined benefit plans were on the increase. I do not think that is in the cards.

I would just say our Retirement Security Plans and our Retirement Security Clearinghouses are responding to the underlying dynamic that Professor Mead has done such a good job in describing.