Bob Corker

this, with all the issues that we all face relating to people and their standard of living after retirement, seems like a no-brainer.

Most employers are pretty reticent about going to the Department of Labor for anything.

It's very important that people are setting aside monies.

So then the employer, how much can the employer put in on behalf of an employee that is tax deferred?

So you would envision exceptionally strong fiduciary standards and liabilities if people were to enter the business of being plan sponsors.

So it's maybe a camel nose into the tent approach, too, that over time we could build upon.

I would think the fiduciary standard for any kind of sponsor would be far beyond what any employer would have of a personal plan.

I know it's taking a long time, but I think this is very important to the topic.

Why would you do that?

Hopefully they do, yes.

So it sounds like you can, without any legislative action, you can easily fix that through regulatory action at the Department level.

I appreciate the efforts of so many on this Committee to create additional access to capital.

I hope we will move forward and focus really on results instead of politics.

These capital-intensive firms face unique challenges in raising the significant amounts of money necessary to complete clinical trials and complete development of cutting-edge drugs.

It is really an indication of the good work that is being done here on the Banking Committee, important legislation to open up markets for small businesses under the leadership of Senator Johnson and Senator Shelby.

The key takeaway from that hearing was we need to ensure the capital markets within the reach of startups at various stages of their development.

I am very pleased with Senator Reid's announcement about the consideration of a package of capital formation bills in the near future.

I think all of us care greatly about access to capital and ensuring that our economy flourishes.

I am confident that with some strong leadership we can get a package of legislation signed by the President.

I very much appreciate that, too--to craft proposals that really will, I think, help small businesses grow through access to capital.

If we could deal with some pro-growth tax reform and entitlement reform and deficit reduction, many of these issues would go away.

But the fact is that this is not exactly a democracy movement in Syria right now.

Listen, thank you, and I appreciate you laying out the tremendous complexities and competing forces and the lack of knowledge of even what this is really all about.

Do you think it is in our national interest--and I will close with this--to be involved in military operations, arming operations to going in with al-Qaeda and Hamas and others and certainly the folks that are on the ground, the opposition…

We do not want it to do damage to the depth of liquidity unnecessarily for lending activities in this country.