Kent Conrad: “Colleagues, I see no need to ask colleagues to cast another vote. Therefore, I will withhold on the second point of…”

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

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.

The one thing I know for sure is that what is happening now is not working.

We did a whole series of things in our Social Security reform not to discourage people from working, but to encourage them to continue working if they are able to do so.