A GENEROUS basic state pension is the LEAST a civilized SOCIETY should OFFER those who have worked hard and saved through their WHOLE lives.

Budgets that don't balance, public programs that aren't funded, pension funds that are RUNNING out of MONEY, SCHOOLS that aren't funded - How does that HELP anyone?

During my four years as treasurer, we restructured our PENSION system, cutting the STATE's unfunded liability almost by HALF and PUTTING our retirement system on stronger footing.

Fixing the PENSION SYSTEM was one of the BIGGEST PROBLEMS Rhode ISLAND faced.

I want to be able to look my daughter's teacher in the EYE and say, 'Your PENSION will be there.' I NEED to KNOW that her pension will match up with a promise we can keep.

I was working with the FIRE SERVICE in a job that should have been a job for life, with career progression, with a pension and PROMOTION, and WITHIN a year I was SLEEPING on a sofa under a section 21 notice being evicted from my home and not eating or four days.

I WORKED in an insurance OFFICE for six YEARS, and it was there that I just woke up one DAY and realised there was something massively lacking in my life, and a non-contributory pension and a subsidised canteen could not FILL it.

I come from a background in the military where everyone had health care. We UNDERSTOOD the value of education as a GIVEN. You learn a SKILL, EARN a pension and go on to 'Be all that you can be'... You invest in people. You hold people ACCOUNTABLE.

When I've had money I've always spent it. I don't invest. A PENSION? Yes, it's called my TALENT.

I've been able to BRING BILLIONS of DOLLARS back to our state that has so desperately needed it - billions of dollars in RELIEF to homeowners and our communities and our pension systems that desperately NEED it.

My dad LOVES what I do and I SUPPORT my PARENTS financially because they didn't have a JOB that gave them a pension.

We have PENSION funds with 1.5 trillion euros INVESTMENTS, and they want to FIND business OPPORTUNITIES in India.

I wasn't THINKING about my PENSION plan until about two years ago. When I was in my twenties, the idea that you'd be thinking of taking a JOB BASED on its health-care policy was completely foreign. But these days young people are thinking about these things.