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The Liebman-MacGuineas-Samwick Social Security plan was independently developed by former aides to President Clinton, Senator John McCain, and President George W. Bush to demonstrate the types of compromises involved in a reform that might be acceptable to policymakers across the political spectrum. The plan would achieve sustainable solvency through progressive changes to taxes and benefits, introduces mandatory personal accounts, and specifies important details that are often left unaddressed in other reform plans. The plan also illustrates that a compromise proposal can contain sensible but politically unpopular options—such as raising retirement ages or mandating that Social Security account balances be converted to annuities upon retirement—which could still realistically emerge from a bipartisan negotiating process but are often left out of reform proposals because of the political risk they present.

The three authors of the proposal will present their plan, which will then be discussed by a panel of experts, including Charles P. Blahous, special assistant to the president in charge of Social Security policy at the National Economic Council; Jason Furman, director of economic policy for the Kerry-Edwards 2004 presidential campaign; John C. Rother, director of legislation and public policy for the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP); and Kent Smetters, AEI visiting scholar and an associate professor at the Wharton School. Douglas Holtz-Eakin of the Council on Foreign Relations and former director of the Congressional Budget Office will moderate.