Washington, D.C. - Reaching a lifetime milestone is a time to both celebrate the present and reflect on the past.  Earlier this month I participated in the Oklahoma State University homecoming festivities, which included a parade, a heart-stopping football victory, and for me, a barbecue reunion for the graduates of the agriculture school.

I was among the 25th reunion class this year.  It’s hard for me to believe that I am 25 years removed from my days in college.  And as a tail-end member of the baby boomer generation, a milestone that made the news this month provided another reminder that I’m not a kid anymore. 

The first baby boomer filed for her Social Security benefits earlier this month.  Kathy Casey-Kirschling was born one second after midnight on Jan. 1, 1946, and will be eligible for benefits in January 2008.  Each day more than 10,000 baby boomers will become eligible for Social Security benefits like Kathy, totaling 80 million boomers over the next two decades.  Kathy’s milestone serves as a reminder for us all that the Social Security elephant has still not left the room. 

I still believe the Social Security program should be made available for all Americans – both current beneficiaries like Kathy, and future beneficiaries such as our children and grandchildren.  Throughout my tenure in Congress, I have opposed proposals that would jeopardize the future viability of these programs.

But Social Security, as it is currently structured, is fiscally unsustainable.  If the current system remains in place, Social Security will begin running deficits, with the outgoing benefit checks exceeding incoming payroll taxes by 2017.  The system will be bankrupt by 2041.  That’s because when the system was implemented in 1935, its creators could never have predicted the baby boom, nor could they have imagined the health care advances that allow our senior citizens to live longer, healthier lives.

We in Congress have a responsibility to address the solvency of Social Security.  I support making the system more fiscally sustainable, without reducing payments for current beneficiaries.  We have made a promise to our seniors, and I will fight to make sure that promise is kept.
If you’re like Kathy and are nearing the Social Security retirement age of 62, I encourage you to check out the fast, easy, and secure website that allows you to file without leaving your home, at www.socialsecurity.gov.

It is these milestones of life that remind us of where we’ve been and where we’re going.  With Social Security, we have a system that has worked wonderfully to provide an additional financial safety net for our seniors.  But its future is uncertain, and unless we act to fix it, the system will not provide the same security for future generations of workers.  We need to make sure when our children are old enough to sign up for Social Security, that they have something to sign up for.