Word: problems
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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...people") Gore and George W. ("I trust the people") Bush? Take a look at what each candidate says at this week's debate about how to "save" Social Security. You have probably heard that the popular program will go bankrupt soon, but that's not exactly true. The real problem is that as the baby boomers retire and then live longer than previous cohorts, aid to the elderly will take up more of the budget, leaving little room for other priorities like health care or education. The solution we choose will have an impact on generations to come...
...READ-MY-LIPS PROBLEM By promising never to raise the retirement age, cut benefits or raise payroll taxes, Gore banks on the surpluses created by the good economy to pay for the baby boomers' retirement. If the economy goes into recession, Gore will have a painful choice: go back on his word, or take money from the rest of the budget to pay for Social Security (which could mean raising income taxes, cutting spending in such programs as education and health care or running up annual deficits...
...only problem was, someone forgot to tell NASA. No sooner did the story break than the space agency issued a flurry of statements insisting that the show was not under consideration. There was something, however, in the nondenial tone of the denials coming out of NASA last week and the week before that raised eyebrows. Yes, Dreamtime was authorized to come up with "outside-the-box" ideas, the space agency admitted--just not this...
...NASA even get involved in this kind of private-sector silliness? How did the agency that made its name in the heady days of John Glenn and Neil Armstrong get mixed up with the likes of Rupert Murdoch and Michael Eisner? Part of the problem may be that NASA has simply put too many of its budgetary eggs in the space-station basket--scrapping in the meantime a number of smaller, worthier projects like its long-dreamed-of mission to Pluto (see box). As public interest in the giant orbiting construction project continues to wane, NASA has grown increasingly desperate...
...problem is that scientists still haven't reached any definitive conclusions about cell-phone radiation (see box). Given that, consumers may grasp at whatever data are available when deciding what to buy. That will be true especially for purchases made for children, whose developing brains absorb more radiation than adult brains and who could be exposed to potential harm for decades to come. That prospect has led parents like Gilbert Yablon to just say no. "I don't let my [eight-year-old] daughter talk on the cell phone," says Yablon, who runs a movie-graphics company just outside...