Kent Conrad: “We hope to support the efforts of an official commission, whether statutory or created by Executive order.”

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…

I thought he was an outstanding Committee Chairman, and my former intern has succeeded him in his Congressional seat.

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.