Mark Neumann: “Does the gentleman see the irony in that debate? I know they ran ads against both of us saying we had reduced the…”

“Does the gentleman see the irony in that debate? I know they ran ads against both of us saying we had reduced the pension funds when in reality what was done is those pension funds were required to keep not enough money to pay the pensions but enough money to pay the pensions and a 25-percent cushion. That is what that debate was about last year. Instead, if they had used those same resources to actually solve the Social Security problem, can you imagine how much farther ahead we would be as a nation? To honestly solve a real problem that is facing this country, not a pension fund that is funded at a level necessary to pay the benefits plus a 25-percent cushion, but rather they turned their attention and focused on the Social Security issue where there are zero dollars in the trust fund, and zero dollars in that pension fund, not 100 percent of what they need plus a 25-percent cushion but in this case zero, would it not have been great if they had used those resources to help us solve this problem instead? I think I should maybe walk back through this once more.”