The president has done a marvelous job of educating the public about the serious problems Social Security faces in the near future. More than 70 percent of the American people agree with him that Social Security's problems must be addressed soon. A mere 28 percent of the people agree with the Democrats that Social Security is in fine shape for years to come and nothing needs to be done to address its problems now.
Paradoxically, the more people come to agree on this point, the fewer of them seem to support personal retirement accounts. As a headline put it in Sunday's Washington Times: "Social Security puzzles voters, survey says." The Times article reported on a recent Pew Research Center survey that found support falling for what people perceive to be the president's plan to reform Social Security through personal accounts.
Support is falling particularly among young people ages 18 to 29, the group that in the past has been the most supportive of personal retirement accounts. A recent Rasmussen poll found that when given a straight-up choice between leaving Social Security unchanged and a proposal for personal retirement accounts (even assuring respondents that the accounts would be voluntary and there would be no benefit cuts for workers over 55), only 45 percent prefer personal retirement accounts while 37 percent say doing nothing would be the better path to follow.
The reason people are confused, I believe, is that they hear Republicans say personal retirement accounts won't solve the problem. That confuses them because for more than 30 years conservatives and free-market advocates have been saying, correctly, just the opposite. Properly designed, personal retirement accounts not only will achieve solvency, they are the only sustainable way to do so and at the same time provide workers higher retirement benefits without raising taxes or increasing the retirement age.
The paradox at the heart of the Pew Center's survey illustrates why it's our message that's confusing people, not personal accounts per se. According to the Times article, when the Pew Center asked people who should own and control Social Security money supposedly going into the Social Security Trust Fund, 55 percent answered "me." Yet the survey also found support for personal retirement accounts falling.