Don Nickles: “I was. I put 100 percent of my thrift plan in, and it made a 40 percent return. For the S&P index for those months…”

“I was. I put 100 percent of my thrift plan in, and it made a 40 percent return. For the S&P index for those months, which included September 30, it was a 34 percent rate of return, a phenomenal rate of return. It was a lot less for Government bonds. There are three different options for Federal employees. They all made significant returns far greater than the 1 or 2 percent that a person can make in Social Security today. So we can allow those accounts to accumulate and grow and allow people to become entrepreneurs and to achieve some real savings and also lessen their dependence on Social Security at the same time. Senator Moynihan also had the nerve to say--I think he said, that we should have, an accurate CPI. Again, a lot of people do not want to touch that. But we should have an accurate CPI. If we have a balanced budget or if we have a surplus or a deficit, we should have an accurate CPI. And, yes, there are significant savings in that proposal as well. He talked about some other things, talking about increasing the retirement dates. That is not real popular maybe with a lot of people, but, frankly, you have to look at the actuarial analysis of Social Security. Social Security has big, big problems. Although I have some reservations, I think my colleague from New York has taken some giant steps in the right direction. I understand there is a little tax increase on the personal income tax side. I would like to see if we can do it without that.”