This is Channel 7 ABC.
Tonight, the fight to fix Social Security gets underway and President Clinton launches a
national debate.
Next, how this affects the future of every American.
Also tonight, a stunner from Nashville, the First Lady of country music passes away.
We'll look back at the amazing life of Tammy Wynette.
And find out why an increasing number of American children are losing their hearing.
I'm Michael Finney.
What do you really get when you dial 10-3-2-1?
We'll tell you later on 7 on your side.
Live, local, late breaking.
Channel 7 News at 5 starts now.
We begin tonight with a promise from President Clinton.
He says he will try to guarantee Social Security for millions of baby boomers without raising
taxes on workers and their employers.
Good evening, I'm Dan Ashley.
Dan Noyes is on assignment.
And I'm Cheryl Jennings.
Now President Clinton chose the heartland of America to make his pitch to save Social
Security.
Experts are saying the program may run short of cash in about 30 years.
Channel 7's Jennifer Moss joins us from the newsroom with more on the debate over Social
Security.
Jennifer?
It's an issue that often pits young against old.
For two-thirds of the country's seniors, Social Security is their main source of income.
Now of course, politicians are reluctant to irritate that powerful constituency in an
election year.
But for baby boomers and generation experts who are looking to their retirement years,
most aren't holding out much hope, even though the President is trying to save the program.
President Clinton took his concerns over Social Security straight to the people, launching
a national dialogue on the future of Social Security.
A future he portrayed as grim if we don't do something to save it.
If we act now, we can ensure strong retirement benefits for the baby boom generation without
placing an undue burden on our children and grandchildren.
This is the first in a series of town hall meetings the President will hold.
But for some, the idea of fixing the Social Security system comes too little too late.
Many Americans don't hold out much hope for the ailing system when it's their turn to
collect.
I wouldn't count on any of it.
If something happens where when I'm ready to retire that there's something there to
help us out and so forth, that's just a bonus.
Other people are getting the benefit of it and I know that I probably will never see
any benefit from for all the years that I've worked.
Melanie's fears could be realized if nothing is done to fix the system.
Right now, more than 40 million people get Social Security benefits.
However, it'll go broke by the year 2029 with the retirement of baby boomers, the largest
generation in America's history.
The system is broke.
Financial adviser Malcolm Greenhill supports one of the ideas being floated to fix the
system, partial privatization.
He says at the very least taxpayers would yield a better return on even a very conservative
investment.
Even if we were talking about
the