Rick Lazio: “let me begin by saying how thrilled I am to be here today, and I rise in strong support of this legislation. I want to…”

“let me begin by saying how thrilled I am to be here today, and I rise in strong support of this legislation. I want to commend my good friend, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Portman) who has spearheaded the efforts to provide pension and retirement security for millions of Americans, as well as the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cardin). I want to thank him as well for his great help. We would not be here without the partnership and bipartisanship that both have exhibited. Mr. Speaker, the baby boom generation is graying. I ought to know, I am one of them, and I can see myself in the mirror every day. Over 60 million baby boomers will be retiring over the next 20 years. Let me talk for a moment about the typical baby boomer generation story. It is a story of a typical middle-class couple who are beginning to approach retirement age. Their children have moved out of their house. These prototypical baby boomers have been working hard, day in and day out, since graduating high school. They have been exemplary members of their community, providing for their families, perhaps volunteering for a local charity, maybe serving on a local school board. Throughout the years, they did all right financially, but they were not millionaires. They never got really rich. They owned their own home. They scrimped and saved to send their kids to school and often they did not have enough left over at the end of the month to save enough maybe for their own retirement.”