31.   Cutting the benefits paid to Social Security pensioners poses a major political risk, of course.

32.   Democratic political candidates have accused their Republican opponents of proposing to cut health benefits for the elderly by hundreds of billions of dollars.

33.   Democrats painted Republicans as seeking to cut future benefits.

34.   Even if benefits are cut, the aging population will exert upward pressure on total spending.

35.   Ed Asner warned Florida seniors, via a recorded telephone message, that if George W. Bush were elected, their Social Security benefits would be cut.

36.   Even more impressive, Mrs. Whitman has resisted the impulse of Republicans in New York and elsewhere to try to cut welfare benefits.

37.   Even though Michigan may cut benefits immediately, prior to any hearing, he said, the benefits can be reinstated after a person requests a hearing.

38.   Episcopalians there have also started several soup kitchens to assist poorer people whose government benefits have been cut, he said.

39.   Forget about raising the retirement age or cutting benefits, he said.

40.   For that there are no other real options beyond partial privatization other than simply raising taxes or cutting benefits.