There is general agreement in Washington that it's now or never for Social Security reform: Congress and the White House will either agree next year on a plan to fix the program or they'll stick their heads in the political sand and leave the problem to some future Congress.

For the sake of our children, grandchildren and future generations, let's hope they do the right thing. The longer the wait the more difficult the task becomes.Social Security, as virtually everyone concedes, is in serious financial trouble. By the year 2013, just 15 years from now, the program will begin running a cash deficit -- meaning it will be paying out more benefits than it collects in payroll taxes.

And by the year 2032, even if the government has made good on all the IOUs owed the Social Security "trust fund," the trust fund will be empty.

Raising taxes is not the solution to this looming fiscal crisis. The payroll tax has jumped from 2 percent in 1937 to 12.4 percent today. It is already too high. Nor is the solution a cut in benefits, which would break the compact Social Security has made with America's workers and retirees. Instead, we need some fresh ideas for fixing the ailing retirement program.

The time has come to redesign Social Security and to begin the transition to a funded pension system based on personal retirement accounts backed up by a federal safety net.

At least some of the ideas for getting there from here will be on display the second week of December, when President Clinton hosts a Social Security "summit" in Washington. More important than specific details, what Washington needs most are some general principles to guide them in the task ahead.

Here are the principles we would have reformers follow:

1. Current beneficiaries and those nearing retirement must be paid all of the benefits promised to them.

2. There should be no tax increase to shore up the existing Social Security program or to pay for the transition to a revamped system.

3. Workers should be allowed to establish their own personal retirement accounts and to invest a portion of their Social Security payroll taxes.

4. For as long as there is a Social Security payroll-tax surplus, this money should be refunded to American workers.

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5. The federal government should not be allowed to privately invest workers' retirement funds, nor should the government be permitted to regulate how workers privately invest their own funds, beyond those regulations that may be necessary to ensure safety and soundness.

6. Workers and retirees should be given ownership of their trust-fund assets.

There are compelling reasons for updating the Depression-era Social Security system for the 21st century. Staving off insolvency is the obvious. An even better reason is that a new system based on personal retirement accounts would give our grandchildren and future generations the opportunity to build real wealth for true retirement security.

Sandra Butler is president of the 640,000-member United Seniors Association, a public policy lobbying group headquartered in Washington's Virginia suburbs.

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