Both political parties grabbing onto the third rail.

This Social Security thing is going nowhere..

(CBS/AP) Congress took up President Bush's request to draft Social Security legislation on Tuesday, as the Senate Finance Committee assessed ways to create private investment accounts as a precursor to the panel drafting a bill.

Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the committee's Republican chairman, brought down the gavel with a declaration that members not only solve the program's most immediate financial problems, but set it on a path to "sustainable solvency" so future members of Congress will be spared the task.

"If this Congress is going to muster the courage, and if we're going to accept the responsibility we should to address Social Security reform this year, we should do more than just kick the can down the road a while," Grassley told a packed hearing room.

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