Social Security: A Debt-Threatened Dream

COVER STORY

Big deficits for Social Security, small chance for reform

Ronald Reagan last week called it "a political football" kicked around by "demagoguery" and "falsehoods." To one of the President's advisers it is "the most sacred cow we have around here." Democratic Senator James Sasser of Tennessee believes that "it might well be the dominant issue in this fall's campaigns." Even last week Senate Republicans were pitted against House Republicans, to the glee of their Democratic adversaries, and a meeting of a blue-ribbon presidential commission degenerated into a partisan shouting match (see box).

The subject is Social...

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