A Cry in the Wilderness

[Andre Dermant <adseale@aol.com>]

I have followed carefully the various discussions on the various
topics and I am very discouraged.  It is obvious to me that there
is an intractable polarization of views between those who want a
Government-oriented system and those who feel that the only viable
salvation of Social Security is an individuallly-controlled
market-oriented system.  When President Clinton stated in his State
of the Union address of January 1998 that he wanted to "Save Social
Security first", with many dialogues, a White House Conference in
December 1998 and a legislative debate in early 1999, many people
became hopeful that something really serious was taking place.
This is May 1999 and NOTHING has been done.  The politicians keep
bickering, the experts keep repeating their positions, the people
are as confused as ever, and in spite of some bona fide proposals,
there is essentially NO chance for any legislative debate on Social
Security this year.  Whose fault is it? I suspect that all sides
have some responsibility for the debacle.  The only really positive
outcome of all these activities is the BEGINNING of an educational
process of the baby-boomers who are starting to understand that
unless they begin to exert some political power, they will never
have the kind of Social Security system that makes sense for them.
What Senator or Congressman will have the courage to start a debate?