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>> i think they are going to do something. they have promised to do it, and there will be something in their budget. whether that is a serious proposal or not, i'm skeptical of. only because we've been in this town for a long time and there are a lot of proposals that are supposedly serious proposals but they really aren't. so we'll see if they will be first out and it will be a serious proposal. >> i will be very impressed, negatively or positively, i'll be impressed if your party, the republican party actually says, raise the retirement age, reduce the benefit levels, something that a person...

For this country and i think the voters understand it. i think it is a different time than when paula hawkins and others -- >> jeanne, do you think the republicans are going to be the first ones to move on this? not the democrats? >> i think they are going to do something. they have promised to do it, and there will be something in their budget. whether that is a serious proposal or not, i'm skeptical of. only because we've been in this town for a long time and there are a lot of proposals that are supposedly serious proposals but they really aren't. so we'll see if they will be first out and ...

Something. they are promised to do it and there will be something in their budget. whether that is a serious proposal or not, i'm skeptical of. only because we've been in this town for a long time and there are a lot of proposals that are supposedly serious proposals but they really aren't. so we'll see if they will be first out and it will be a serious proposal. >> i will be very impressed, negatively or positively, i'll be impressed if your party, the republican party actually says, raise the retirement age, reduce the benefit levels, something that a person can see when they watch a program...

Included, my cabinet, the legislature, to make more in terms of pension premium contributions. so that's where we're at. i know there's a bunch of questions. sure. >> they keep saying this is about -- [inaudible]. >> you'll see major cuts in aid to local government, which is what i have said is going to come for some time. what every other governor across the country is going. the only way i can ensure they won't lead to massive layoffs is if the local governments have the authority to set their pension and benefit levels the way we're outlining in the bill.

Doing, the only way i can assure that those cuts aren't going to be lead to massive layoffs, major cuts in core services is that those local governments have the authority to set their pension and benefit levels the way we're outlining in this bill. if you have collective bargaining ament grbargain ing agreements in place, there's no guarantee any of those statements would materialize. >> but you remove all future collective bargaining. you would have the upper hand. >> you allow the local and state governments to depend what the pension is in the future. i didn't have that when i was the coun...