In this TCS Central piece, Arnold Kling addresses what he would like to hear President Bush say in his upcoming speech accepting the Republican nomination for President. On the key issue of financing Social Security and health care, Mr. Kling advises Mr. Bush to say the following:

Going forward, the most important issues are Social Security and the government’s role in health care. The Administration should focus on pursuing modernization and reform in those two areas.
On Social Security, the President should say that the system works for today’s seniors, but it does not work for younger people. As important as it is to keep our promises to those who are in retirement or close to it, it is just as important that we not leave Social Security as it is for people in their 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s.
The American people need to know that the money that workers put into Social Security now does not belong to them, but instead goes into the general Treasury, where Congress spends it as it pleases. You might think that the money you put into Social Security goes into an account where it belongs to you and nobody else can touch it. However, it does not work that way. It can work that way. It should work that way. It will work that way once reforms are enacted. Privatization is the ultimate lockbox.
Social Security also needs to be more flexible. Our existing system was designed when reaching the age of 65 meant that your active life was probably over, and you were likely to die within a decade. Going forward, we need a system that can accommodate everything from early retirement to seniors taking on second careers and new challenges in their 80’s. Personal accounts are the key to giving people more options as they age.

Then, Mr. Kling turns to financing health care:

On health care, reforms should adhere to some basic principles. These principles will promote personal choice and continued innovation.
The first principle is to give as much decision-making authority as possible to patients and doctors. Today, treatment choices can be distorted by Medicare regulations, fear of lawsuits, and other mechanisms. Reform should aim to minimize such sources of distortion.
The second principle is that taxes should be used to pay for health care only for those who truly need assistance. To the extent that the government pays health care expenses for everyone, your medical bills will go down but your tax bills will go up by much more. We need only limited paternalism.

A good start would be enhancing the recently established Health Savings Accounts, which are addressed in this prior post.