Kent Conrad: “The water is going to come and stay.”

We ought to reestablish this benefit for survivors and those affected by disability.

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.

We tried to include some of these ideas in our Social Security reform package, to actually provide incentives in the system for people to continue to work.

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