Pickle, chairman of the House Ways and Means subcommittee on Social Security, at that time was drafting a bill to raise from 65 to 68 the retirement age at which full benefits could be collected, in small steps beginning in 1990 and ending in the year 2000.

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House GOP leaders said immediately they would hold a vote on Friday, which left House Democrats in a pickle.

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In one of the more egregious examples of the partisanship that has dogged all efforts at Social Security reform, House Speaker Tip O'Neill ordered Pickle to go no further.

CNN: A Debt-Threatened Dream