Kent Conrad: “I personally believe we are going to have to reduce tax expenditures, broaden the base.”

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

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

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…

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.