SELLING SOCIAL SECURITY REFORM.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)

Pollsters at a recent Cato Institute conference debated the question, What will it take to get Congress to enact sensible reforms of Social Security?

Some polls appear to show support for the status quo. In 1997, for example, Democratic pollster Peter Hart asked people whether they would prefer to "fix Social Security by strengthening its financial condition" or "replace Social Security by allowing people to invest their Social Security contributions in the stock market, so people can manage their own investments." His respondents favored "fixing" Social Security by 67 to 28 percent.

Republican pollster Bill McInturff tested this question by rewriting it slightly. When he changed the privatization part to ask if Congress should "expand Social Security by allowing people to invest their Social Security contributions in stock market mutual funds, so that people can control their own investments," privatization still lost, but only by a 52 to 42 percent margin. And when he spelled out a "fix" of the existing program as requiring a "small payroll tax increase and slight reduction in benefits," privatization was suddenly favored by 59 to 30 percent.

McInturff said voters like Social Security reform when it's presented as a way to offer taxpayers choices. Taxpayers also like privatization when they understand that competing calls to "strengthen Social Security" really mean higher taxes and lower benefits.

But McInturff warned Republicans not to take Social Security money away from seniors. Since seniors vote in off-year elections and younger ...