The proposal of Mr. Reagan in 1981 that was massively rejected by the Senate was that there should be a cut in benefits for those who put in for Social Security before reaching the age of 65. Alan Greenspan, 23 years later, has made the same point. And in between, the number of Americans age 62 or older rose by millions.

The speech Reagan gave at the White House conference in December 1981 was exemplary in logic and eloquence, and prophetic in the matter of costs. It was pure Reagan. He spoke of the difficulty of communicating with elderly people on the subject of Social Security, but acknowledged that communication between generations was always difficult.

He recalled the special difficulty he had had as governor of California, back when students were rebellious and suspicious of anyone over 30. He spoke of one delegation of students who had come to him. Their spokesman had said: "You can't understand your own sons and daughters. You didn't grow up in a world of instant electronic communications, of cybernetics, of men computing in seconds what it once took months and even years, of jet travel, nuclear power, and journeys into space to the moon."

Reagan said that the Lord was with him that day, providing an apt response: "You're absolutely right. We didn't have those things when we were growing up. We invented them."

He went on to plead, in a speech graphic with illustrations, the need to invent a Social Security system that didn't simply run out of money. He cited longevity. "Today's young people, in many instances, don't even know the names of diseases that plagued mankind when we were young and that have been eliminated."

In a saddening citation he spoke of the mortality rate. "Today's typical 65-year-old will live another 16 years, and our median national age will go up another three years in the next decade. I'm already ahead of that!" He was ahead of that then, and, 23 years later, is still alive.

There are many approaches, of course. Raising the age at which Social Security can be had is the most obvious --but remember, it was frowned upon by the Senate 96-0. Retirement funds that provide an incentive to save and a prospect of real growth are a part of the Republican view of life: Encourage independent and individualized economic activity. But the challenge is directly on the shoulders of George W. Bush.