President Bush has been making efforts to persuade Congress to get his Social Security reform bill passed, and it is expected that he will face tough opposition. Though I realize that a large part of my audience dislikes the president, it should be realized that these reforms are intended to benefit our generation.

There are two reasons why Social Security in its current form will be inadequate in the coming years. First, a huge segment of our population is rapidly approaching retirement and will be collecting benefits. In fact, the system will be paying out more money than it will be taking in by 2018. The second strain will be the fact that people are living quite a bit longer today than they were when the system was designed in the 1930s.

If we leave the system alone it will be bankrupt by the time we are ready to utilize it. The longer we sit back and wait, the harsher the solution will be to implement. Fixing this problem now is a much better solution than massive tax hikes in the future.

Democrats are already threatening to make this a campaign issue in the next congressional election. Even though Bush’s plan would not alter coverage for current or soon-to-be users of the system, Democrats intend to try and confuse old folks into thinking Republicans are trying to take away their benefits. And since these people are the ones who vote, Democrats feel they can defeat the bill using this strategy.

Bush wants to allow our generation to take some of the money that we will be paying into Social Security and invest it, which will allow us both to own and grow the money, rather than just turning it over to current retirees.

I urge you to take an active part on your own behalf and take three minutes to write an e-mail to your representative in Congress. This problem will be dealt with in our lifetime one way or another, the catch is that the sooner we do it, the easier it will be for all of us.

Dan Turnbull

Senior

Marketing