His plan is going to needlessly risk the economic prosperity and jeopardize the future of Social Security and Medicare.

I think it's an object lesson that paying the cost of Social Security in the future is going to depend upon economic growth. If you don't have growth, our pensions and other obligations are going to become unaffordable.

Because we made real progress and because in 1998, we said here's our future agenda -- save Social security, keep the economy going, pass a Patients' Bill of Rights, continue to invest in our children's education -- the public responded and we moved closer to being a majority in that historic election in 1998,

The issue is the future of Social Security. The program as we know it today will not last. It is headed for bankruptcy.

The major impact of Sept. 11 on privatization is the disappearance of the Social Security surplus, ... Before the attacks, it was questionable whether we had enough money available to pay for the transition to privatization. This makes the issue even more difficult.

We can set aside a surplus to save Social Security or Medicare, or we can pass the burden of the baby boomers retirement off on to our children,