are joined this afternoon by two very distinguished public service, senator kerry and senator jack danforth. both worked with those senate majority leaders who founded this place. president clinton established the bipartisan commission on entitlement and tax reform by an executive order in november 1993. chairman gurion vice-chairman danforth took on the herculean task of carrying out the executive order and they were joined by 10 other united states senators, two who are still serving. the current majority leader, harry reid, and thad cochran. the last one who is just retiring from the house, john dingell, and 12 members of the public. senator domenici, who may join us later, was on that commission. but in the end, the commission could not reach consensus. instead, its final report was a compilation of competing proposals. but the two cochairman advance their brave proposal as it related to social security, raising the retirement age to 70, a cut in the social security payroll tax with the money redirected into mandatory private accounts and adopting price indexing among other changes. alt

than 30 years in the united states senate and served as governor for bob kerrey and attorney for jack danfortheir home states . >> great. it is great to be with jack again. brief, i wasely senator for 13 years. the first and most important question for the mecca people to ask and have answered is do we have a problem? if you don't think there is a problem, particularly the candidates, and especially the press needs to ask the candidates is there a problem? if there isn't a problem, why propose anything? i think we do have a big problem and it's a demographic problem. a few can't blame it on anybody. it's demographics. it would have been able -- it would have been easier to solve it in the mid-1990's when the demographic problem began to become a reality. , baby boomers day are moving into the ranks of eligibility. and they are entitled to these benefits that are specified. in the longer you wait, the more difficult it is to solve the problem. again, it is not a problem that was created by lessor right here and it is a problem that we sickly promised more than the current law is able to keep. i

as bill noted, 20 years ago, the two respective senators jack danforth and bob kerrey were appointedident bill clinton to chair the bipartisan commission on entitlement and tax reform. during the reform. during the course of the reparations, they produced a report that declared current budget policies as unsustainable. current trends as unsustainable and they made certain key findings about the nature of the problem and the issues policymakers would need to address in order to find solutions. it really was a remarkable report in the two respects. one, 30th 30 of the 32 members of the commission agreed on the second findings defining the problem, and essentially it is the nature of the problem in the intervening years. the second remarkable thing is that all of the findings unfortunately are still valid. when i was looking through them earlier this year i thought you could release these today and it would still be valid so that was the idea that i asked bob kerrey and jack danforth if they would like to do that because after the five presidential elections and ten congressional and at

us today.for hosting twoill noted, 20 years ago, respected united states senators, jack danforth andppointed by president clinton to chair a commission on entitlement and tax reform. during the course of their deliberations they produced a currenthat declareed budget trends are unsustainable made findings about the nature of the problem and the issues that policy makers would need to address in fine solutions. it really was a remarkable respects.two the 30 of the 32 members commission agreed on the seven findings. the problem, and those seven findings essentially had thened the nature of problem in the intervening years since. is second remarkable thing that all of those findings, unfortunately, are still valid. was looking through them earlier this year, i thought, you could release these today and it would still be valid. was the idea that i and jack kerrey danforth if they would like to do that, because after five elections, 10 congressional elections and at least four other bipartisan commissions, there were probably fiscalseven, those policies are still unsustainable reasons tha

yield the floor, as they say in the senate, to our distinguished guest speakers, bob kerrey and jack danforth, who together spent more than 30 years i guess in the united states senate and served as governor, for bob kerrey, and attorney general, for dan -- for jack danforth. i will yield the floor force much time as you may consume. >> great. well first off it's great to be with jack again. and let me try to be relatively brief, i've been out of the senate for 13 years, but the first most important question for the american people to ask and answer is do we have a problem? because if you don't think there's a problem, particularly the candidates, and especially the press it's just the candidate, is there a problem? because if you don't think there's a problem, why pose any solution? one of the challenges we have, happen to think we do have a big problem and that it's a demographic problem. it wasn't caught by liberals or conservatives. you can't blame it on anybody. it's demographics. it would've been easier to solve it in the mid 1990s before the big demographic problem begin a reality whic

i was fortunate to work for jack danforth.ome people might not of thought the work was glamorous but i got to work for a good man. and who 40 plus years later, i think of in an even more positive light than i did when i worked for him in 1974. so, i think it is important to work for good people, people of integrity, people who are positive. and finally, although i did not get a chance to say this to them, i do believe this. you treat people the way you expect to be treated, whether they deserve it or not. they are owed that. that is hard to do. a part of going to the things that sonia mentioned earlier is the ability to let things go. to forgive and forget and to turn and move on. that is not so easy. but you want to be forgiven. you want people to give you a pass sometimes. you want people to think better of you. so you do it to others. so i feel very strongly that we are required to treat people the way that we want to be treated. and finally, i think even when it is hard, you are required to be honest, not to give in to fad

these bridge builders as far as i was concerned for people like bill cohen, bill bradley, jack danforth, john warner, david boren, sam nunn, nancy kassebaum, republicans or democrats, and the list goes on. and maybe the last one to leave because of frustrations was olympia snowe. so you've got this large number of people, most of them could've been reelected for ever, who left in disgust because they couldn't get anything done. and i think that's the new phenomenon over the last couple of decades that is especially worrying. now the other theme though in this book and i think this as an important point to make, to spite my frustrations and even my anger at the congress, the reality is i got a lot of things done with the congress. most of my predecessors did they were lucky to get two or three or four big military procurement programs canceled that were over cost, overdue, or no longer relevant. i cut nearly three dozen and ended up getting congressional approval, or acquiescence come in all of them. i cut almost $200 billion out of the pentagon's overhead, and even eliminated a combatan