In a memo to O'Neill dated Oct. 15, 2001, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy Kent Smetters reported that Moynihan, New York's former Democratic Senator, was upset at White House's interference with the work of the bipartisan commission Moynihan lead to examine the reform of Social Security.

This later, revised version of the Smetters memo includes a passage in which Moynihan expresses the he "is very concerned" that the Commission not appear to doing anything radical.

In this November 29, 2001 memo, Smetters and treasury official Chris Smith tell O'Neill that Moynihan's staff is "miffed at attempts to introduce new options into the mix at this point."

Now that Alan Greenspan has ignited an election year debate over how to fix Social Security, we've drawn from the Bush Files two documents that show the administration's plans for Social Security during the only time -- the fall of 2001 -- when the President was fully engaged on the issue. Read them here.