NOT EVEN A HARD MATH PROBLEM:

Lawmakers Seeking Consensus On Social Security Overhaul (Lori Montgomery, 5/06/09, Washington Post)

"I know what it takes to get a solution," [Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.)] said. "I think we can get double-digit Republican support for a reasonable compromise. But the key to this, at the end of the day, is presidential leadership."

Graham described Social Security as "a math problem" that could be easily solved if both parties were willing to work together. He sketched out a plan that would include lower benefits for wealthy Americans, a higher retirement age and additional revenues. With the stock market devastated by the recession, the traditional Republican option of diverting Social Security taxes to new private retirement accounts is, he said, "off the table."

"You can do a combination of things, give a little here and give a little there, and get it done," Graham said.

Hoyer is expected to sketch out a similar plan in a speech today to the Bipartisan Policy Center, which was established in 2007 by former Senate majority leaders Howard H. Baker Jr., a Republican, and Thomas A. Daschle, a Democrat, and former senators Robert J. Dole, a Republican, and George J. Mitchell, a Democrat. The center's goal is to promote bipartisan solutions to pressing public challenges.

According to an advance copy of the speech, Hoyer will suggest that Congress could approve "more revenues," "restrain the growth of benefits, particularly for higher-income workers," "and/or we can raise the retirement age, recognizing that our life expectancy is higher today."

"What is missing here is not ideas -- it is political will," the speech says.

Too much Reagan, too little W, but if you raised retirement age high enough and penalized early retirement heavily you'd force people to pursue other options..

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 6, 2009 6:43 AM