The legislation skips over the dicey proposal for private accounts, but may still face fierce opposition from Democrats who say Republicans are determined to privatize Social Security.

Bennett, admitting the legislation won't get Senate approval, said nonetheless he's throwing ideas out to his colleagues and hoping for feedback.

“This legislation focuses exclusively on making Social Security solvent,” Bennett said in a statement. “It does not increase taxes or the payroll cap, and it does not include personal accounts of any kind.”

Still, he added, “I'm under no illusion that this bill will pass. But the crisis is looming, and eventually the realities will reach a breaking point and Congress must act.”

Bennett's office says the Actuary of the Social Security Administration, essentially the office charged with ensuring the entitlement is funded, has stated that Bennett's legislation would bring solvency for the “foreseeable future under this proposal.”

President Bush's plan to allow residents to place part of their Social Security funds into private accounts foundered last year after polls showed Americans wary of any changes.

Bush later endorsed Bennett's plan, which excludes the president's private accounts provision, but the proposal went nowhere.

Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said last year that this approach is just a way to get the private accounts provision passed.

“Until the president and the Republican leadership agree that their misguided attempt to privatize Social Security is over and they will no longer pursue their previously announced bait-and-switch strategy, Democrats will continue to refuse to enter negotiations over Social Security," Reid said in a statement last year.

Bennett's proposal, essentially, would slow the growth rate of benefits starting in 2012, mainly for the wealthiest Americans. Social Security payments for those making the most money would be tied to the growth rate of inflation, not to the growth rate of wages, the current method.

The changes wouldn't affect any retiree born before 1950 nor any worker in the lower rung of wage earnings on the year they retire.

The Congressional Budget Office predicts the Social Security Trust Fund would start paying out more than it takes in by 2019 and be bankrupt by 2052, though trustees of the fund say it will happen sooner.

tburr@sltrib.com