Our plan

[National Dialogue Moderator <moderator>]

While it will be difficult to expand on the excellent summary provided by my
colleague, Rep. Charlie Stenholm, I would like to add a few additional
comments.

Rep. Stenholm and I are extremely proud of this legislation.  We've tried to
create a centrist solution that is both honest and fiscally sound.  Our bill
achieves many things: it is balanced and solvent; it reduces the enormous
financial burden on younger generations but preserves benefits for current
and near retirees; it creates new savings vehicles for all Americans and for
the first time, provides the working poor with the opportunity AND the
mechanism to create wealth; it enhances the retirement income of low income
workers and strengthens the government safety net; it increases the rate of
return on Social Security for all generations; it provides individuals with
ownership of and control over their retirement assets; and lastly, it has
bipartisan support in both the House and Senate.  

These merits are hard-won.  The original plan on which this legislation was
derived was the plan put forward by the National Commission on Retirement
Policy (NCRP).  The NCRP was a 24-member commission of experts which Charlie
and I co-chaired with Senators Judd Gregg (R-NH) and John Breaux (D-LA) in
1997-1998.  The Commission included public sector and private sector
retirement saving experts whose goal was to develop a plan to strengthen
America's retirement programs, including employer-provided pensions,
personal savings and, finally, Social Security.  Fifteen months after the
panel's creation, we disproved the notion that all commissions must end in
disagreement or irrelevance.  In a unanimous vote, our commission agreed on
the 21st Century Retirement Security Act.  

Our current proposal, HR 1793, builds on the foundation laid by the NCRP.
We hope that in the final analysis, Americans will judge the plan as we
have:  a centrist, fiscally sound proposal to save Social Security for all
generations.

Rep. Jim Kolbe