Clinton: save U.S. social security

WASHINGTON - President Clinton used his State of the Union speech yesterday to shine the bright glare of national publicity on Social Security, making it clear he wants a conversation and debate among Americans about the future of the retirement program.

Beyond his high-profile proposal to set aside the newly emerging federal budget surplus to help pay the baby boom generation's Social Security benefits, Clinton and Vice President Al Gore are likely to attend town hall meetings this summer organized at the prompting of the White House to get people talking about the program's financial problems.

Clinton has invited the Concord Coaltion, which endorses restrictions on Social Security spending, and the American Association of Retired Persons, a staunch defender of the current system, to be co-sponsors of the events.

The administration wants a blizzard of publicity throughout the year, leading to a White House conference on Social Security in the winter, and culminating in a meeting between Clinton and congressional leaders in January 1999, to craft a bipartisan bill to assure Social Security's solvency.

Clinton's plan to reserve future budgetary surpluses for Social Security is, at best, a stopgap measure. This is essentially a bookkeeping device that would help reduce the overall federal debt by declining to spend the surplus on other federal programs.

But its real purpose is to send a strong message to Congress: Let's fix Social Security first. "The surpluses should not be used for any tax or spending items until the Social Security issue is completed next year," Social Security Commissioner Kenneth Apfel said yesterday.

"This is an attempt to push the country to do something we've never taken on before: major entitlement reform when we weren't facing an immediate crisis," said Gene Sperling, head of the administration's National Economic Council.

The AARP, a staunch defender of the current system, had invited Clinton to participate in one of its periodic events dealing with Social Security. A similar invitation came from the Concord Coalition, a citizens group pressing for such measures as a higher retirement age and reduced Social Security benefits for those with higher incomes.

The White House decided the best way to get a broad-based approach welcoming all points of view would be to have AARP and Concord as co-hosts for the series of bipartisan town meetings.

Members of Congress and many organizations and groups will be invited to the conferences, said Horace Deets, executive director of the AARP. "We want more people involved, particularly younger people," said Deets. "Changes in Social Security will affect my children and grandchildren."

Clinton's proposal for the meetings drew widespread approval, including from those who would like to give individuals the option of placing some of their Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts.

"It's important the president is beginning to talk about this," said Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., author of legislation that would establish such accounts. "For too long this issue was in the far corners of the Washington debate."

01-28-98