NEW YORK (CNN) - Get out the Grecian formula and change the battery in your hearing aid!

Retirement may be a lot further off if Alan Greenspan's advice rules the day when it comes to Social Security reform.

Yesterday he repeated a warning he's made to Congress in the past: Millions of baby boomers are going to be retiring en masse in the not-too-distant future and the cost of paying their social security and medicare benefits could turn the already swelling federal budget deficit into a financial nightmare.

But it's his solution that had people up in arms -- from Washington to Wall Street to Main Street: work longer, folks, and accept lower monthly government checks.

In his testimony to a House panel, Greenspan urged lawmakers to move quickly to fix the nation's swollen budget deficit -- including measures that could cut some future Social Security payments -- to avoid even bigger problems for the nation's economy down the road.

(To read more about Greenspan's comments, click here).

The anger came quickly.

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Roger Hickey of the Campaign for America's Future stated an oft-heard refrain.

As he puts it, Greenspan urges cutting benefits "to pay for President Bush's massive tax breaks for millionaires -- which have turned record budget surpluses into deficits."

Okay, a very Democratic kind of response in this election year. But trust me, I heard Republican-sympathizing economists making similar remarks.

Hickey claims voters will reject this line of thinking -- tax breaks for millionaires, less benefits for older people -- in November:

"Americans are starting to ask - why not just stop shoving cash into the pockets of millionaires? Greenspan and the Bush administration are asking average Americans to trim their Social Security checks so that Dick Cheney can keep getting his $90,00 per year in tax breaks."  

-- Kathleen Hays anchors CNN Money Morning and The FlipSide, airing Monday to Friday on CNNfn. As part of CNN's Business News team, she also contributes to Lou Dobbs Tonight.