Kent Conrad: “We owe it to these men and women to strengthen our retirement system.”

Well, you got a terrific one with her.

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.

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…

This Retirement Security Plan structure that we have suggested I think would go a long way toward dealing with these issues.