WASHINGTON -- Clinton administration officials say Wednesday's closed-door meetings with lawmakers on Social Security's future are just a warm-up for difficult negotiations yet to come.
"The purpose of the sessions are to see what it's going to take to reach common ground," said Social Security Commissioner Kenneth S. Apfel. "It's clearly a challenge."Without changes, the nation's retirement program is expected to run short of cash by 2032, after more than 75 million baby boomers begin collecting benefits.
During congressional election campaigns this fall, Republican leaders and President Clinton pledged to tackle the problem next year. However, Clinton held a public meeting with public policy advocates on Tuesday and the private talks with lawmakers that were scheduled for Wednesday.
But the options for refinancing Social Security are limited, and any change to the government's biggest benefit program is likely to be unpopular.
Interest groups already are mounting aggressive lobbying and grassroots campaigns.
The biggest gulf is over the idea of setting up a system of personal accounts so that workers could invest some of their Social Security contributions in the stock market: business and conservative groups favor it while labor unions and civil rights groups are opposed.
Because of the political dangers, some Republican leaders say action on Social Security will be stalled until the president sends legislation to Congress.