Kent Conrad: “Maybe we could at this moment then put that in place. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Hampshire.”

It takes guts to do that, and Chairman Arrington, you have certainly led the charge on having a commission.

We all know that Social Security is going to have to be dealt with, or we are going to face by 2034 at the latest--many of us believe it will be earlier than that---an across-the-board 23-percent cut.

Let me just say, you know, I come from a small business family.

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.