Nine-year-old Noah McCullough first became infatuated with U.S. politics after participating in a mock election in kindergarten. Four years and 3,000 books on the topic later, he has defeated Howard Dean in a presidency trivia contest, appeared on The Tonight Show to showcase his knowledge, and campaigned for and met President Bush. Now, Progress for America, a conservative issue advocacy organization, is taking this child prodigy spokesperson on the road selling the president’s plan to save Social Security.

“(Social Security will) be bankrupt by the time I’m president,” McCullough said. The target date to launch his presidency campaign is 2032.

Noah, and President Bush, are correct. According to the Annual Report on the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) and Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Funds, the two main categorizations of “Social Security,” under long-range, high-cost assumptions, the DI Trust is set to run out by 2015 and the OASI Fund will be bankrupt by 2032.

This is because Social Security will soon be supporting the baby-boomer generation, and costs will skyrocket with the influx of so many new dependents. Additionally, increased life expectancy and relatively low fertility rates will keep the average age of the American population rising. Simply put, the costs to keep Social Security alive will outrun the taxes being paid into it.

Democrats insist that the Board of Trustees who released the Annual Report on the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance Trust Funds don’t know what they’re talking about. They maintain that under low-cost assumptions, there’s going to be enough money in the system to keep it going until 2076, which is partly true.

But they are only fooling themselves. Democrats love to dip into Social Security and use the incoming funds for other projects. After all, it was vice President Al Gore and the Senate Democrats who voted to increase the tax on Social Security payments. That’s typical – only Democrats would be in favor of taxing a tax. There is going to be nothing “low cost” about Social Security when the baby-boom generation starts retiring in mass quantities, and the system will still be vulnerable to Congress’ sticky fingers.

This is a chance for Democrats in Congress to bridge the partisan gap, and support a Republican-led plan to save the Social Security system so that it’s around for generations to come. Yet, they choose to stick their heads in the sand and pretend that the problem doesn’t exist.

The Republican solution is quite clear. If the government is not capable of securing the public’s retirement on a large scale, then the people should have the option of managing their own retirement fund. In his State of the Union address, President Bush outlined a policy of Social Security reform that would allow taxpayers the option of taking up to 4 percent of their annual taxable income, and placing it in government established, low risk stock options.

His solution to the Social Security problem is not a new one. He has talked about privatizing Social Security ever since his campaign for Congress in 1978. Barry Goldwater first introduced the idea in his run for the White House in 1964. President Reagan advanced the idea – even President Clinton publicly pondered the possibility of private accounts.

With this inevitable dilemma on the horizon, President Bush has an opportunity to define his presidential legacy as a domestic reformer, countering his image as aggressive only on foreign policy.

This plan would not be mandatory, because it is understood that many do not trust the markets or do not understand their operations well enough to invest wisely. The elderly do not need to fear that the money that they are owed will disappear. America’s youth have everything to gain by supporting this plan.

Many say that privatization takes the “security” out of “Social Security.” However, the protection of any safety net will disappear for our generation if the government does not act on this problem soon.

A 9-year-old political junkie can figure this out. Why can’t the rest of the country?