dr. blai house, you're recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman, mr. ranking member, all the members of the subcommittee. it's a great honor to appear before you today 20 discuss the latest reports. what i'd like to do is gloss over the background information in my written remarks and proceed to primary points about social security financing. the first simple point is that social security costs are rising. most of that cost increase is going to play out from a period that started in 2008 through 2035. the primary driver of those cost increases is demographic. if you think about social security costs, there are two main pieces of them. one is growth in the per capita benefit level and that's driven by law. but also the growth in the number of beneficiaries. on the revenue side, the primary driver is the growth in the number of workers and the wages that are subject to tax. so that ratio of workers to beneficiaries is important for social security financing. and that ratio is in the process of dro

dr. blai house? >> i'm an advocate of acting as soon as possible. >> i think speedy action is called for. whether the actual changes in policy you make need to be implemented next year or after is a totally separate issue. this is an area where we generally phase policy in over a long time to get people accompanied. >> it will be impossible to protect current retirees. so your advice to us, what's the timetable? how soon do we need to act? this year? next year? your advice to us. >> you know, i think you should act when the climate is right. when changes are being made -- >> not from the plolitical standpoint. i'm asking as a trustee looking at the numbers, how much time would you say we have to act in your belief? >> i would hope that you would act within the next five years. >> dr. blai house? >> yes. with a disclaimer, if you were to line up ten experts, i'm probably on the pessimistic end as to how bad it's going to be if we delay. definitely within five years. i would hope to do it even faster.