Kent Conrad: “This region and North Dakota will be forever changed by the oil play underway.”

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

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 say personally I would not go to a company advising me on wealth management that did not have it because I think whoever is advising me ought to have as their highest responsibility to be giving me advice that is in my interest.

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.