The defined benefits of the status quo assure that someday the feds will simply redefine the benefit. By moving it towards a defined contributon plan, the risk is transferred to where it belongs: to those who earn the money.
The retirement age needs to be indexed for longevity, but the biggest challenge is to make sure that what people earn and invest privately is both free of federal invetment control, while maintaining prudent long-term investments.
Market volatility over the long term leads to higher performance, but if one is facing retirement, short term volatility can be a killer.
I will be very interested to see how the management of this will take place. Effective reform is going to be a tough challenge. The scope of the enterprise is vast, and the opponents are going to be looking for advantage.
Ed