EXCUSE ME! BOOMERS RETIRE

(October 15, 2007) - Excuse me! I have an announcement.

The nation's first baby boomer filed today to start receiving her Social Security retirement benefits January 1, 2008. That's right. Kathleen Casey-Kirschling, a retired Maryland teacher who was born at 12:00:01 a.m. on Jan. 1, 1946, applied this afternoon for early retirement benefits. She'll become eligible to receive benefits in January when she turns 62.

Excuse me! You may not quite appreciate the serious nature of this event.

"This is the first drop of rain in the flood," said Bob Bixby, the head of the Concord Coalition, a Washington-based advocacy group that promotes balanced federal budgets. "It's the beginning of an era. It's symbolic but it reminds us that we're not doing anything to prepare for this."

EXCUSE ME!!!

For Our Grandchildren and a host of other civic-minded groups have been talking about this date for years. Congress and a flock of presidential candidates have been doing all they can to avoid talking about this date - and this issue - for years.

It's time for that to change.

Please take a moment - RIGHT NOW - to call your elected officials in Washington, DC and ask what they're doing to seriously address the coming financial crisis. The number is 202-224-3121.