FIRST BABY BOOMER DRAWS RETIREMENT CHECK

This isn’t a story set in the far-off future. It's happening right now and will continue - everyday - for the next 18 years or so. Many thought they'd never live to see it. Now it's a reality.

Kathleen Casey-Kirschling, 62, the woman called "the first baby boomer," received her first Social Security retirement check on January 1st. Oddly enough, the sky didn’t fall nor did the federal government go bankrupt. But then, no one really thought that would happen.

It was just another tick of the clock. Just another day - a federal holiday at that - and there was no word from Congress about any plans to discuss the problems facing Social Security, Medicare, and other such programs – much less legislate a solution – in the near future. But then, no one really thought that would happen either.

And starting January 1st and every day afterward, 10,000 baby boomers will become eligible for Social Security. That’s not an insignificant number. And it’s not insignificant that Congress refuses to act.

Appearing before the House Budget Committee in Washington, DC a year ago, Congressional Budget Office Director Peter Orszag, a Democratic appointee, observed what many have known for years: "A general phenomenon of problems that grow steadily worse over time is that waiting longer and longer makes it more and more difficult to deal with. That's true with regard to Social Security."

Orszag continued:

A colleague once called it the 'M&M problem.' Any given M&M you can say, 'Oh, it only has three calories, it's not going to really harm my waist line.' But if you did that over and over and over again, you wind up injecting a lot of calories into yourself. So, similarly, failing to act each day, you can't argue that, you know, not acting today versus tomorrow has a monumental effect, but if you cumulate that, it becomes quite problematic. Another way of saying it is, the sooner we act, the better off we will be because we will have more choices available to us and impose fewer costs on future generations.

The incumbent Congress and President and those currently running for Congress and the White House have a moral responsibility to speak out on matters affecting the economic welfare of those they represent. Failing to do so is legislative malpractice at its worst.

Congress waits but time marches on. As of January 1st, we’re just a little closer to the economic day of reckoning.