New Roundtables in the National Dialogue

[Bob Carlitz <bob@giotto.info-ren.org>]

	    New Roundtables in the National Dialogue

Two new Roundtables are starting up today in the National
Dialogue on Social Security.

One deals with Current Legislative Proposals and includes the
following Senators and Representatives:
	*Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY)
	*Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH)
	*Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA)
	*Representative Jim Kolbe (R-AZ)
	*Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY)
	*Representative Earl Pomeroy (D-ND)
	*Representative Mark Sanford (R-SC)
	*Representative Clay Shaw (R-FL)
	*Representative Charlie Stenholm (D-TX)

This Roundtable will focus on bills which have been introduced
or will likely be introduced in the current legislative session.
Thus the Roundtable can provide your direct line to the latest
action before Congress.  Please take advantage of this opportunity
to participate in the development and evaluation of new
legislation.  The moderator for this Roundtable will be Ron
Gebhardtsbauer, Senior Pension Fellow at the American Academy
of Actuaries.  Many of you have met Ron in his role as a
panelist in the Options for Reform Roundtable.  A specialty of his
is the comparison of plans for Social Security reform, so we
should all learn a lot from this Roundtable.

The second new Roundtable focuses upon issues relevant to Women
and Minorities.  Our panel members are
	John Banks-Brooks, Tax Management, Inc.
	Heidi I. Hartmann, Institute for Women's Policy Research
	Kilolo Kijakazi, Center for Budget and Policy Priorities
	Darcy Olsen, The Cato Institute
	Anna Rappaport, William Mercer, Inc.
	William Spriggs, National Urban League
and the discussion will be moderated by Maureen West, a senior
reporter at the Arizona Republic.  This topic is likely to figure
prominently in discussions of Social Security reform, since the
structure of the current Social Security system influences these
groups disproportionately.  Please use this Roundtable as an
opportunity to learn more about this topic and to express your
views.

A third, very interesting and active Roundtable continues from
last week.  Our panelists are
	Robert D. Reischauer
	Carolyn Weaver
and the topic is Investing in Stocks, or, more precisely
"Investing in Private Markets."  This is probably the central
issue in current discussions of Social Security reform, and
our panelists are two of the leading experts on this topic.
Their viewpoints contrast sharply, and they are both eloquent
in stating them.  Please join us for this provocative discussion.

We are also continuing as a forum for General Discussion the
forum which began as a "Discussion on Values."  If you have
not yet expressed yourself in the National Dialogue, this
could be a good place to start.

The National Dialogue will run for another two weeks.  Please
don't miss your chance to make history as a part of this
unique experiment in electronic democracy.  Just remember the
Web address
	http://www.social-security.org

Bob Carlitz
Information Renaissance