Bennett introduces bill to 'save' Social Security

Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, introduced a bill Wednesday he says would save Social Security from going broke in upcoming years as the number of retirees explodes and the number of people supporting them shrinks.

"We are literally facing a retirement tsunami with the number of retirees projected to increase by 75 percent between 2010 and 2030," he said. "This legislation would ensure that our children and grandchildren will receive roughly the same level of benefits when they retire as current retirees do today, and we can do this without raising taxes."

He said the bill would keep the system solvent through three main changes: raising the retirement age from 66 to 67; changing how benefits are calculated so they match growth of prices instead of wages; and adjusting future benefits to account for increases in life expectancy.

The bill would begin in 2012 to raise the retirement age of 66 by two months a year until it reaches age 67 in 2017.

Also in 2012, a change would be made to "progressive indexing" to match benefits more to the growth in prices than the growth in wages. Wages tend to grow faster than prices.

Bennett's proposal would use "longevity indexing" so retirees would receive inflation-protected levels of their initial retirement benefits for longer periods than prior retirees as life expectancy increases.

Bennett said the Social Security Administration looked at a similar bill he introduced in 2006, and said it would bring solvency to the Social Security system.

"We cannot continue to deal with the problem of changing demographics (where the number of retirees is expected to skyrocket) by simply ratcheting up taxes," he said, adding "If Congress is going to spend nearly $1 trillion on a stimulus package, we have to have the courage to tackle entitlement spending as well."

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