WASHINGTON -- Talks about Social Security will heat up in January when Democrats take majority control of Congress. But the discussion will be different from how it was in 2005, when President George W. Bush pushed for personal retirement savings accounts.

Momentum for that idea, which would have funded voluntary retirement savings accounts for younger workers by diverting a portion of current payroll taxes, died as Republicans in Congress failed to take up Bush's initiative amid opposition from a variety of groups, including Democrats...

One proposal getting lots of attention is a "little bit for everybody" plan that could form the basis of a successful bill, according to experts.

The so-called LMS plan is named for Jeffrey Liebman, a former aide to President Bill Clinton; Maya MacGuineas, a former adviser to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Andrew Samwick, former chief economist for Bush's Council of Economic Advisers.

After gathering dust for a year, the plan is generating new interest on Capitol Hill, said MacGuineas, director of fiscal policy programs at the New America Foundation...

The Social Security Administration's Office of the Actuary said the plan would eliminate Social Security's solvency gap over the next 75 years while maintaining benefits at relatively comparable levels for future retirees.

"We tried to figure how to make compromise in each major area," MacGuineas said.

She said lawmakers see the plan as an honest attempt by a bipartisan group to identify the choices necessary to shore up Social Security...

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