
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, December 12, 1994                   TAG: 9412140026
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

CLINTON OFFICIAL SAYS SOCIAL SECURITY WON'T BE CUT

President Clinton won't cut Social Security to ease the budget deficit, his chief of staff said Sunday as the chairman of an entitlements commission warned that cuts are inevitable without drastic changes now.

``The president made clear during the campaign - and before that - that we are not going to touch Social Security, and we're not,'' White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta said on CBS' ``Face the Nation.''

But Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., told NBC's ``Meet the Press'' that Social Security could not remain solvent if left intact, because 260 million Americans will become eligible for benefits over the next 50 to 60 years.

He suggested reform could begin with millions of Americans stashing money in savings accounts to supplement their future Social Security benefits.

``It's much less likely that we'll keep it solvent if we rely on our own taxes to get the job done,'' Kerrey said. ``We're not in crisis immediately, but long term we've got a very serious problem, and the earlier we get to it ... the more likely it is that Americans will have the opportunity to plan and adjust their behavior.''

Kerrey, co-chairman of the Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform, proposed a plan last week to cut the deficit by raising the retirement age for Social Security and Medicare to 70 and limiting income tax deductions to 28 percent. Kerrey also proposed cutting entitlements other than Social Security - which include Medicare, food stamps, federal pensions and welfare - by 10 percent, then holding their growth in line with inflation and population growth.

``We're not talking about immediate cuts. We're talking about a program that's phased in [over] 30 to 50 years,'' Kerrey said.

Kerrey's co-chairman, retiring Sen. John Danforth, R-Mo., said that without cuts to Social Security and other entitlements, Republicans would not be able to carry out their plan to mandate a balanced federal budget.

``Is that hard to deal with politically? You bet it is,'' Danforth said. ``This is called the third rail of politics. You touch it and you're dead.''

Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen agreed that the budget can't be balanced without cutting entitlements. But he argued that the cuts should come through health reform, not Social Security.

``We're going to have to do something in the way of cost containment insofar as health. That has to be brought into line. Otherwise, it's going to swallow our economy,'' Bentsen told ABC's ``This Week with David Brinkley'' from the Conference of the Americas in Miami.

by CNB