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Efforts to reform entitlement spending should recognize the following factors: 

Higher levels of government should provide adequate resources when mandating functions to lower levels of government.

Services should be implemented and operated by the level of government that can most appropriately and efficiently deliver them. 

The Department of Labor should establish clear protections for participants in defined benefit plans when fiduciaries wish to transfer their pension annuities to private insurance companies.

Plans that wish to offer lump-sum buyouts should be required to provide clear and complete disclosures. These should be in hard-copy form and state the implications of choosing a lump sum.

When retirement plans transfer risk from the plan to others—either by purchasing annuities from private insurers that take responsibility for paying monthly benefits or by offering retirees current

Government workers should continue to have access to defined benefit (DB) plans. 

Modifications to retirement plans or plan formulas should hold harmless current beneficiaries and employees. They should also ensure the retirement security needs of future retirees. 

Policymakers should adopt new and expanded progressive savings incentives. 

Congress should make improvements to the saver’s credit. The credit should be phased out gradually and smoothly as income increases. Income limits for receiving the credit should be increased.