Baby Boomer No. 1 applies for Social Security

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(from USA Today)

One down, 79,999,999 to go.

The "first Boomer" applied for Social Security benefits today.

The honor goes to retired Maryland teacher Kathleen Casey-Kirschling, born at 12:00:01 a.m. on Jan. 1, 1946. This afternoon she filed to receive early retirement benefits when she turns 62 in January. The Baltimore Sun was there.

USA TODAY's Richard Wolf wrote about her last week, and Bloomberg noted the milestone today.

Many people are worried that if the publicly-financed retirement system isn't modified, rising health care costs and federal budget deficits will drain the Treasury long before each of the roughly 80 million people born between 1946 and 1964 gets his/her slice of the Social Security pie.

"It's the beginning of an era. It's symbolic, but it reminds us that we're not doing anything to prepare for this,'' Bob Bixby, head of the bipartisan Concord Coalition, which advocates for a balanced budget, told Bloomberg.

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