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I think it's very important not to confuse the importance of dealing with Social Security in the long term with these short-term deficit reduction challenges. They're different issues.

Social Security's future has gotten worse, and each year we delay reform adds to the cost we are pushing off onto our children.

Social Security faces financial problems down the road because of demographics.

If the economy is strained, then Social Security, like the rest of the government, will be, too.

Social Security is not just another government spending program. It is a promise from generation to generation.

While Social Security faces some long-term challenges, the system is not in crisis.

Certainly Social Security needs to be reformed.

Social Security has been effective for 70 years; prior predictions of its demise have been totally overstated.

The reason to deal with Social Security is that it is a system where we have a tradition and history of making sure it is solidly funded for 75 years. At the moment, we look out and we see it is solidly funded until 2037.

Even the Congressional Budget Office and the Social Security trustees appointed by the president say that Social Security is financially sound, without any changes for the next 40 to 50 years.