Too bad you limited our choices in your questions. But, I will give you some answers.
"How do you rank the chances of Social Security legislation on a
scale of 1 to 10?.. If nothing happens it is 1. If there is 75 year solvency plan passed, the answer is 10."
It will be 1. Nothing will happen. Senator Lott and others have made this very clear. Look what the Republicans did yesterday on Clinton's new Gun rules. I have never seen a more wishy-washy congress in my adult life. Nothing gets done anymore for fear of what might happen in the next election. It's an insane cycle that must stop. They will have to acquire some guts somewhere along the line before anything will happen. Look at what they did with the legislation on the Kosovo war - they tacked on money for everything from aid to Latin America to Steel Industry money - these current congress people don't even have the guts to discuss any issue on their merits - they hide and attach their special "pork barrel" monies wherever they can. We'll never see any "real" discussion on SS reform because they don't have the guts for it. We're doomed.
"Do you think there will be a bi-partisan deal to do add-on accounts, like the USA accounts, and leave the tough decisions for a later Congress?"
No. And besides, this doesn's solve anything. "Tough Decisions"? They can't make one.
"If you could get a guarantee that Congress would pass, and President would sign, just one single option from the potential reform list, what would you pick? Use of 62% of budget surplus? 2% individual account carve-out ? raise the taxable
wage-base? or any other item of your choice."
Definitely, none of the outline choices. None of these solve the long-term problems of SS. The Cato Alternative plan makes the most sense to me.
I want the most control I can get on the money I make and earn. I want the government out of my life.
