The First Baby Boomer, Second Blog Carnival

There are a lot of elements to the nation's fiscal problems -- rising health care costs, the government's willingness to accept deficits as "normal," the fact that the government spends more in interest on the national debt than it does on Iraq. But most of these budget problems are slow-boiling worries. It's rare that you get an actual, obvious milestone.

But that's exactly what happened on New Year's Day, when a retired teacher from Maryland became the first baby boomer eligible for Social Security. That's not her fault, of course. Somebody has to be first in line. But there are 78 million more baby boomers behind her, and unless something changes, the Social Security system won't be able to cover those costs. Everybody in Washington knows this problem is coming. And everyone seems determined to worry about it later.

Sounds like a good time for a blog carnival.

If you missed our first blog carnival, these are online events where a number of bloggers all post about the same topic. The Facing Up blog coordinates the event. All the bloggers who participate post on the topic and link to the host blog, which posts a digest summarizing all the entries. Since Facing Up is a nonpartisan initiative, anyone with a blog can participate, whether liberal, conservative, centerist or something else. Just post your entry by Jan. 28 and let us know at either editorial AT publicagenda DOT org, or whallowell AT publicagenda DOT org, with “Blog Carnival” in the subject line. Be sure to include the permalink to your post, and don't forget the link to www.facingup.org.

Thanks for participating, and we're looking forward to seeing everyone's posts.