BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: From Washington today, the president's commission on Social Security met under intense criticism over what the group is saying about the system's future. To the White House and Major Garrett who's tracking this now for us. What did they have to say today, Major?</s>MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: They had a lot of things to say, Bill. But to understand this story, you might think about the phrase "a lot of heat, not very much light," and that's really the situation we find ourselves in right now, at least from the perspective of the president's commission on Social Security reform. A lot of angry rhetoric from Capitol Hill, most of it coming from Democrats. Even angrier rhetoric in the streets from Democratic activists who already accuse this commission of being in cahoots with President Bush to madly rush to privatize the entire Social Security system. Well, the commissioners have their own catch phrase: you do the math. What they say is there's a systemic structural flaw in the mathematics of Social Security. There will not be enough workers come year 2016 and beyond that to support the benefits currently promised, and to deal with that you must reform the system. One of the ideas they're talking about is the partial privatization, maybe setting aside 2 percent of the 12.5 percent payroll tax to provide some stability and future benefits for younger workers. It's an angry debate, one that's only likely to get more angry as times goes on.</s>HEMMER: And Major, the commission's report due, final, when?</s>GARRETT: Later on in the fall. They have approved a preliminary draft. They will give it to the president sometime October, November, maybe as late as December, which means this issue, should the president decide to put it in the state of the union and lay it before Congress, will be debated in an election year.</s>HEMMER: And you are right there. Major Garrett at the White House. Thank you, Major.
Bush's Commission on Social Security Holds First Meeting