Remember last year's efforts to fix Social Security? In this era of instant news cycles, it is easy to forget. But even though the politicians bungled efforts to restructure the program last year, the issue has not disappeared. Roughly 77 million baby boomers are still preparing to retire. They still don't have enough kids and grandkids to pay the taxes needed to support them in the style to which they'd like to become accustomed. And, in the long run, Social Security is still promising 40% more in benefits than it has resources to pay.

That's why it was instructive to see what happened on a steamy Washington afternoon when a gang of policy heavyweights got together for the first time in a year to mull solutions to the Social Security problem. It was an opportunity to see how the logjam could be broken-and why it won't be any time soon.

Three top-notch experts rolled out a compromise, bipartisan reform plan on June 19 at a conference sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington think-tank. They were Democrat Jeff Liebman, a former economic aide to President Clinton; independent Maya MacGuineas, who advised Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) during his 2000 presidential run; and Republican Andrew Samwick, a top economic adviser to President George W. Bush....

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