This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Friday, July 11, 2008.

I'm Caleb Brown.

The looming crisis in Social Security should be on the front burner of this election year but it's hard to tell if

either Barack Obama or John McCain a nominal supporter of private accounts will

make it a front burner issue. Cato Institute Senior Fellow Mike Tanner breaks down the rhetoric of the

candidates on the third rail of politics. Well of course Social Security

was a big issue a couple of years ago when President Bush tried to create

a system of personal accounts and tried to do some overall reform of the system.

Unfortunately, he was not successful. It was not the most

competent attempt at reform and it was met with an enormous opposition from

the left that mobilised and spent millions of dollars

fighting this and it seems to have gone off the table since then.

John McCain, a supporter of personal accounts, but he hasn't really stuck his neck out on that

issue.

Seems to be making some noise about the tragedy of these payroll taxes of young people going directly to

the retired

but also the tragedy that is

using the Social Security Trust Fund to fund all sorts of current year spending.

Well in Washington it's often said that a gaff is accidentally telling the truth and John

McCain may have done that. He recently referred to the current

way Social Security is funded as a disgrace. He has also made comments that suggest

that he favors allowing younger workers to privately invest a portion of their payroll taxes through personal accounts.

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