Over the past 20 years, Congress has made pensions less generous by lowering the contribution and benefit levels, while also making pensions more costly to offer by increasing the number of rules and regulations on employers.

which are critical to ensuring strong support in Congress.

We have informed Congress that the United States does intend to appeal the panel decision, ... We believe that the (WTO panel) report contains errors of law that provide grounds for the appeal to the WTO appellate body.

This is not something where we can -- as the EU and the U.S. have unsuccessfully tried in the past -- come up with an agreement for everyone,

Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress believed we could spend our way to prosperity, and I guess they still do.

I have acknowledged the problem and have spent my time in Congress focusing on solutions - including developing clean and efficient energy that grows our economy and creates jobs while also lowering pollution levels and protecting the environment.