SOCIAL SECURITY CURE MAY LIE IN FREE MARKET

Joined by a bipartisan group of three former colleagues, former Sen. Paul Simon of Illinois has weighed into the debate over much-needed entitlement reform. Simon, who now heads up the fledgling Institute for Public Policy at Southern Illinois University, proposes to reduce the cost-of-living index and remove the cap on the taxable amount of income. In this he is joined by former colleagues John Danforth of Missouri, David Pryor of Arkansas and Alan Simpson of Wyoming. Some economists contend that the Consumer Price Index is flawed and overstates the rate of inflation, resulting in unjustified cost-of-living increases to Social Security payments. Restating the CPI could reduce by billions of dollars future increases in the federal pension system.

All this may be true, but two observations are in order. First, we've been down this road before. Three years ago, Danforth and another senator headed up a blue-ribbon panel on reigning in the runaway train that is the federal entitlements of Social Security and Medicare. Their report gathers dust today. Second, the ones who are making real (if incremental) progress in addressing this tough problem are such as Steve Forbes, who proposes private, market solutions of the kind that Chile has adopted, not the sort of bandages that have been proposed before and probably can't be enacted in the reasonably near future.