Kent Conrad: “You know, they are scared, and it makes them freeze.”

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

All the talk in the world doesn't matter if you don't actually get something done in the real world.

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…