Kent Conrad

We also increase the payroll tax very modestly, from the current combined rate of 12.4 percent to 13.4 percent over 10 years.

The surviving spouse provisions are especially important with regard to offsetting some of the unfairness that exists elsewhere.

That I like to call the 'Conrad provision.'

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.

It was incredibly important that we not only made Social Security solvent, but we lifted the bottom 20 percent dramatically.

If you are really going to relieve me of the administrative burden, if you are going to really relieve me of the liability, if you are going to really relieve me of the cost other than the payroll transfer.

There is going to be a 23-percent cut across the board by 2034.

The consequence of failure has to be made clear.

You know, we did have discussions. One of the things on this commission, because of its makeup and the diversity of views on this commission, and the extraordinary difficulty of coming together on Social Security, which we thought was the…

This Retirement Security Plan structure that we have suggested I think would go a long way toward dealing with these issues.

If we are going to make this whole system solvent, it is going to take everybody to give a little bit.

Forty-six percent of the American people would have a hard time coming up with $400 for an emergency car repair.

I am eager to hear from our panelists to get a better sense of all the options they considered and how they reached consensus on the final report.

The bottom 20 percent of earners get a 35-percent increase over what is scheduled, a more than 60-percent increase over what is payable.

Well, you got a terrific one with her.

We create a basic minimum benefit that will apply to about 10 percent of Social Security.

What we have done is really removed employers with 500 or fewer employees from all of that headache.

Organize and educate I think are the two keys to getting anything big through Congress.

You make very good points, by the way.

If we are going to provide tax incentives for people to have retirement savings, then it should not be used as a piggy bank to pay for other things.

I cannot be part of any recommendations on long-term care because I am conflicted.

I would say to you, as I looked at this, I saw Social Security as the bedrock.

I sense there is a feeling here that we have got to get some of these things done that are hanging out there.

There is a societal cost that is sort of hidden, isn't there?

I have seen retired schoolteachers have to go back to work in their 70's after their husbands have died or their wives have died.