A preview of 2010 campaign debates

Here's a preview of this fall's political debate. "If you vote for my opponent, he/she will vote to raise the Social Security retirement age. He/She will force you to keep working to age 70! Now, I just want a simple answer, do you or do you not favor raising the retirement age?"

"No. I do not favor raising the retirement age, but I also don't favor seeing Social Security go bankrupt, and that's exactly what is going to happen if Congress does not take bipartisan action to save Social Security, which is now on an unsustainable path. Social Security promises more than it can deliver, and without some corrective action, it will go bankrupt within our lifetimes. I don't like the idea of raising the retirement age, but if we're honest with ourselves, we'll admit that Franklin Roosevelt never envisioned a time when an average retiree would be drawing Social Security for 20 or 30 years. Life expectancy has increased, but our expectations of Social Security have not. I favor a bipartisan approach that will look at all possible solutions to this crisis — and it is a crisis when million of Americans are depending on a program that will not be there when they retire. Those solutions have to include changing the benefits formula, increasing the age for full benefits, increasing contributions to Social Security, or some combination of all these solutions. The worst thing we can do as a nation is to pretend the problem doesn't exist. It is not going to solve itself, and the longer we put off a decision, the harsher the penalty will be on our children and grandchildren.

"No, I do not favor raising the retirement age, but I recognize that there are some things that are worse than that, and I certainly hope my opponent doesn't favor insolvency for Social Security and destitution for those who are counting on it."