Wednesday, December 9, 1998

Social Security gathering may lead to policy

A White House conference this week on how to save Social Security is not so devoutly to be wished as a White House policy on saving Social Security, but it at least has the potential of leading to a policy. It has the potential, too, of bringing about some bipartisan cooperation if President Clinton finally decides he can take some risks.

The hope for the conference resides chiefly in two facts. One is that the experts attending were not selected from just one or the other of the major camps on the issue of how to redesign the program to assure its survival. They represent a variety of points of view.

The other of these facts is that the president has yet to rule out individual retirement accounts as part of a package he would embrace. Only through this sort of private investment mechanism will the program be truly reformed for the long haul.

The risk for President Clinton and the other politicians in Washington is that the chief interest groups on the issue are powerful lobbies representing the elderly. Although virtually no responsible proposal has more than a minimal impact on those already receiving or near to receiving Social Security, these groups are adamant in opposing any change that varies much from the status quo.

They either deny that the program faces a crisis — it really, truly does, and much sooner than is generally reported — or else they would solve everything by increasing the payroll tax, which would be utterly devastating to today’s workers.

In the final analysis, true, substantive, enduring reform will require bipartisan cooperation. It is crucial that both Democrats and Republicans sign on, so that neither party will be pounded on in the elections.

This sort of hand-holding can happen only with the president’s leadership. Perhaps he will begin exercising that leadership at this week’s conference.