President Clinton says he hopes to introduce “historic, bipartisan legislation” to make social security strong for the 21st century. (AP Photo)

The debate is the third in a series designed to increase public awareness of problems with financing Social Security into the 21st century, something Clinton, congressional leaders and policy experts say will be a problem.
     The first meeting defined the problem and the second looked at retirement in the 21st century. This one, “The Great Social Security Debate,” is a debate on the solution.
     Darcy Olsen, analyst with the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, says the current system is in trouble. One Cato Institute document refers to Social Security as “comparable to the type of pyramid schemes that are illegal in all 50 states.”
     “It is definitely a crisis. Social Security has a $10 trillion unfunded liability,” Olsen said. “Right now we have a surplus because all these baby boomers are funding it. But in 2013 we run out of money.”

Maybe It's Not So Dire
Henry Aaron, however, does not see things as quite that dire. Aaron, an economist with the Brookings Institution, says things can be fixed without major restructuring.
     “There is a projected deficit,” Aaron says. “Virtually every member of Congress agrees that early action is better than delay, but we have time to adjust. It is not at all difficult to put together marginal changes in the current system that can fix it.”
     Today’s debate is sponsored by the American Association of Retired Persons and the Concord Coalition and was put together in response to a request by Clinton in this year’s State of the Union Address.
     In that speech, Clinton promised to keep the system solvent and have a plan within a year.
     “Whether you’re 70 or 50, or whether you just started paying into the system—Social Security will be there when you need it,” he said. “I will convene the leaders of Congress to craft historic, bipartisan legislation to achieve a landmark for our generation—a Social Security system that is strong in the 21st century.”
     The Cato Institute’s Olsen says that in any case, something has to be done, and done now.
     “They have to look for a way to pay for it. The numbers are so huge that they have to start thinking about it now,” Olsen says.