After seeing his Social Security reform proposals go nowhere in 2005, President Bush used his Jan. 31 State of the Union address to announce plans for the second commission of his administration to examine the issue.

Bush asked lawmakers to create a panel that would "examine the full impact of baby boom retirements on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. ... We need to put aside partisan politics and work together and get this problem solved."

A year ago, Bush used his address to the nation to urge Congress to reform Social Security by making personal investment accounts a part of the program, a proposal that reflected recommendations of the Commission to Strengthen Social Security, a panel he created in 2001. The reform push failed amid nearly unanimous Democratic opposition and disunity among GOP legislators.

The 2001 panel did not recommend - and much of the discussion in 2005 did not mention - forcing all state and local workers to participate in Social Security. Previous commissions have made that recommendation, though, and with financial pressures growing as Social Security nears the point at which annual expenditures will exceed revenues, the proposal could be revived.