"Hopefully, the senators' letter to President Obama will contribute to an important national debate about a serious problem -- namely, the failure of low-income Americans to save for their retirements. The California and Illinois laws represent one possible approach to mandate private sector retirement savings with a state-run plan as the default option.... But these are not the only options that exist for federal and state lawmakers.... Justice Louis Brandeis famously said that the states are laboratories for experimentation. The subject of private sector retirement savings is well-suited to such experimentation."  MORE >>