Tom Harkin: “I rise today to speak out in support of Retirement USA's ``Wake Up, Washington!'' Month and to wake up my colleagues to…”

“I rise today to speak out in support of Retirement USA's ``Wake Up, Washington!'' Month and to wake up my colleagues to the looming retirement crisis in this country. The public has already woken up. A recent survey found that 92 percent of adults aged 44 to 75 believe there is a retirement crisis in America. Now it is time for Congress to address this crisis before it is too late. We are already seeing the beginnings of the retirement crisis. Just look at all of the older Americans forced to delay retirement or go back into the workforce because of the economic downturn. If we do not change course, it is going to get much worse. Next year, the first baby boomers will turn 65, and it is clear that many are not prepared for retirement. According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, nearly one-half of them are at risk of not having sufficient retirement resources to pay for basic retirement expenditures and uninsured healthcare costs. The picture is not any better for the rest of American workers. Thirty-one percent of workers do not have any retirement savings at all, and 43 percent of workers have less than $10,000. If those numbers are not sobering enough, the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College calculated America's retirement income deficit for Retirement USA. They estimate that the gap between what people need for retirement and what they actually have is $6.6 trillion. That is a scary number.…”