By Senator John Breaux & Senator Judd Gregg
The L.A. Times—Washington Post News Service
July 30, 2001

Washington has a dirty little secret: When it comes to reforming Social Security, Republicans and Democrats aren't as far apart as they want you to believe. But there's just something about the politics of Social Security.

Nearly four years ago we joined to forge a bipartisan compromise—a venture that has, unfortunately, proven that playing politics with Social Security is more attractive than finding a solution. The partisanship has escalated over the past two years, with Democrats and Republicans challenging each other to take on Social Security. Now President Bush has accepted the challenge.

We must act quickly to institute reform. If we don't, the rhetoric of the 2002 elections will soon dominate the Social Security debate.

The American people deserve more. We have treated them to mind-boggling debates over surpluses, general revenues and lockboxes. Over the past few weeks we proved that we cannot agree on whether real assets even exist in the Social Security trust fund. Finally, with the release of the interim report of the President's Commission to Strengthen Social Security, the latest battle that divides is over the severity of Social Security's problems.

But the truth is everyone agrees that the current Social Security system is unsustainable and that changes must be made to be sure money is there to support the baby boomers and beyond.

While the debate rages as to whether personal accounts should be above or within Social Security, most understand that personal accounts are a vital tool for all Americans to create wealth.

Furthermore, there is general agreement on the size of these personal accounts, which should be administered like the Thrift Savings Plan available to all federal employees, including members of Congress.

Most in Congress also agree on other key Social Security objectives, including these:

• Boosting national savings is vital to the economy.
• Reform must strengthen, not weaken, retirement security for all.
• Women and low-income families should be better off.
• Reform should not affect Americans at or near retirement.
• Reform should not overburden younger generations.
• Market Investments can generate a better return.
• Some of the on-budget surpluses can be used to reform the system.

Social Security isn't just an American concern. How an aging populace affects public pension systems is a global problem. Other industrial nations face essentially the same problems we do: the doubling of the elderly population and a reduction of young workers supporting them through pay-as-you-go retirement systems. But many other countries have already successfully reformed their retirement systems—and these are nations with far fewer resources than the United States.

Here, we know Social Security reform will never happen without a presidential push. Fortunately, the debate has reached presidential proportions in both parties.

Earlier this month, The Washington Post reported that former President Clinton had seriously studied personal Social Security accounts along with other reforms when he was in office. And we take President Bush at his word that he is committed to leading the national debate—just as we take the Democratic Party’s word that strengthening Social Security is a top priority.

Most members of Congress, whatever their opinions about Social Security, have an unwavering obligation to protect the program: Individually, the hearts and minds of the congressional members are in the right place. But politics continues to frustrate the search for a solution.

Enough common ground exits between the two parties to close the ideological and philosophical gap. We could meld the concepts of social insurance, personal choice and wealth creation into a compromise to preserve the current safety net while providing better retirement benefits.

But this remains our dirty little secret. If more Americans knew this, they might actually expect us to do our job and pass Social Security reform now, before it's too late.

Senators John Breaux, D-La, and Judd Gregg, R-N.H., have co-sponsored legislation to reform Social Security.