Top national polls are showing huge majorities in favor of such reforms. In 1995, in a poll of an adults, Mr. Luntz found Americans supporting the idea by 77 percent to 14 percent. In 1996, Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies, perhaps the leading candidate polling firm, found the public favoring the idea by 68 percent to 11 percent. Moreover, last month Oregon may have started a national trend as its legislature passed a remarkable resolution calling on Congress to enact a waiver system for Social Security that would allow each state to adopt a private option for its residents. This proposal is based on the highly successful waiver option for national welfare programs, which has avowed states to adopt quite effective reforms for those programs.
Efforts are under way to adopt such resolutions in other state legislatures.
If Congress doesn't start paying attention soon, America will be left behind in this galloping international trend. Left behind as well will then be the freedom and prosperity of the American people. This article originally appeared in The Washington Times on July 2, 1997. The Cato Institute Project on Social Security Privatizaton E-mail the Webmaster 1000 Massachusetts Ave.