Rhetoric Rules Debate on Social Security Reform

"You just don't need to do what the president suggests," he says. "It would cost $1 trillion, and some people would wind up with more because they were lucky investors, while some would be getting much less, or even nothing."

Chad Kolton, press secretary at the Office of Management and Budget, says the trustees' report figures are used in its budget projections, but that the slight differences between that report and the CBO's findings share one basic conclusion.

"Whether it's 2018 or 2019, there will be a point where Social Security would require money from the general treasury, and that would continue for 40-some years until the program becomes insolvent," he says. "In order to maintain Social Security for the long term, changes would need to be made."

Tanner says Bush will have a chance to make a virtue of necessity at the convention. "Both of those reports concluded the same thing -- Social Security is unsustainable in its current form," he says. "There are only three options: raise taxes, cut benefits and invest privately. I think raising taxes and cutting benefits is unacceptable."