Kent Conrad: “I believe it was absolutely essential to prevent a collapse.”

I do, and I made that argument to the commission, and others on the commission made some of the points that you are making now.

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…

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.

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