Kent Conrad: “Are we a fragile economy? Yes, we are. Is there more work to be done? We can debate that.”

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

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…

Social Security's financial challenge affects nearly our entire society, and the solutions will require a broad-based approach.

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.