David Thomas: “First of all, the fact that we are on the floor today with a bipartisan proposal to reform the pension and the…”

“First of all, the fact that we are on the floor today with a bipartisan proposal to reform the pension and the individual retirement accounts is quite an accomplishment, and I want to compliment the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Portman) and the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cardin). It has been more than 20 years since we made an adjustment in this important savings area. I heard the gentleman from North Dakota (Mr. Pomeroy) say that the substitute had been looked at and that it was thoroughly understood. I do have to say it is fundamentally different than the President's initial offering. In fact, it is substantially different than the offering that the Democrats have presented in the Committee on Ways and Means just last week. Last week's offering cost $225 billion over 10 years on top of the fund. This one only costs $105 billion over 10 years. In one narrow particular area, the refundable credit, which was not in the President's initial budget proposal, cost $35 billion. So it is substantially different.”