Many citizens, myself included, believe that Bush and his colleagues emptied the national treasure and raided the retirement trust funds with one purpose in mind - that is, to get rid of the money that had been saved there, and, then, to claim that because there now is no more money , then, we must "reform" (reduce benefits) to the elderly.

Folks, don't fall for that logic and manipulation, please. It's true that much damage has been done to Medicare and Social Security in the Bush years. Still, experts know that if we set about the job of repairing the damage now, both programs are repairable and without a reduction in benefits or a huge increase in taxes.

What is needed now is different priorities. We should no longer sink our retirement money into Iraq.

We must fight for more responsible budget priorities that improve Medicare and honor our obligations to our parents without unduly burdening our children.

I am also outraged by the congressional raid on the Social Security Trust Fund in the last 6 years. For several years, the Republican controlled Congress has raided our Social Security Trust Fund. Over the last six years, they have used our Social Security fund money to pay for their extravagant overspending on unrelated activities, such as tax cuts for mostly the smallest minority of the wealthiest few, the ill-conceived war in Iraq, over priced no-bid government contracts, and other wasteful projects.

Folks, we can save our Social Security Trust Fund.

Now that we have a progressive majority in Congress - and in 2008 when we get a progressive president - we will be able to undo all the damage that has been done to our retirement security.

Bush and his colleagues would like you to believe that our Social Security Trust Fund is out of money. They hope that you will believe this so that they can do what they have always wanted to do anyway - cut social security benefits, eliminate government responsibility, and eventually hand it all over to the private sector.

But, it's just not true.

Social Security faces a fixable financing problem - but the president's privatization plan actually makes that problem worse.

Privatization is the real Social Security crisis. This is absolutely the wrong direction for our country.

In order to protect seniors and the Social Security Program, we must now keep control of Congress away from the party that began unraveling Medicare and Social Security six years ago.

According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Social Security can pay 100 percent of promised benefits until at least the year 2052 - nearly half a century into the future.

And since funding for Social Security checks is generated each year by contributions from current workers, the only way for the Social Security system to run out of money is for Americans to simply stop working.

Social Security provides guaranteed economic security for more than 47 million grandparents, parents, individuals and children nationwide. Social Security is designed to support families when a family breadwinner retires, becomes disabled and is no longer able to work, or dies. Social Security is efficient - costing less than 1 percent per dollar in administrative costs.

There is simply no comparison between Social Security and the 12 to 14 percent fees of private insurers charge. Nearly two-thirds of retirees count on Social Security for most of their retirement income.

I support placing the Social Security Trust Fund in a lock-box protection from these congressional raiders. We must insist that the Trust Fund be paid back and protected from any future raids.

We must also save our pension system.

We know the most secure retirement belongs to retirees who can count on a pension or 401(k) in addition to Social Security and personal savings. But the total value of 401(k) plans dropped last year, and pension plans nationwide are under funded by $320 billion. Our government has allowed corporations to abandon pension programs that employees have counted on for decades.

The Bush Administration has asked for legislation that would give big companies the ability to make deep cuts in pension benefits for older workers. This is misguided.

America can be better.

Citizens really must stand up and create the political will to repair Medicare and Social Security from the damage done and recent years - and establish the unwavering political will to save these essential bedrock services for the years to come. We need to:

1. Speak out always for the need to return the government to a path of fiscal responsibility, getting back to balanced budgets and fiscal discipline as soon as possible in order to protect the Medicare Trust Fund and Social Security Trust Fund for future retirees.
2. Insist on putting seniors first by opposing risky strategies that put HMOs, private insurance plans, and drug companies in charge of seniors' health care.
3. Fight to increase preventive benefits for seniors like flu shots and cancer screenings, and to add affordable, comprehensive prescription drug coverage.
4. Work to secure pension benefits, make it easier for workers to save for retirement by enhancing and strengthening investment vehicles like 401(k)s and IRA plans, and provide clear information on retirement investment options.
5. Fight for protections for older employees' pensions, requiring companies that want to change their pension systems to provide older workers with the same amount of benefits they would have received under the existing pension plan.
6. Support legislation that eliminates special treatment for executive pension plans, preventing a repeat of the manner in which Enron showered its executives with special executive-deferred compensation benefits, while rank-and-file employees stood in line with all other creditors with little hope of recovering any of the billions in pension benefits that were lost.
7. Demand a plan that makes permanent the saver's tax credit, a measure that helps low-income families save for the future.
8. Defend workers' pensions, toughening current law and criminal penalties for trust managers who violate workers' pension rights.
9. Demand laws that protect workers - plans that give employees control over their retirement savings, allowing employees the right to diversify company-matched stock soon after plan participation. Enron employees, for example, were prevented from selling hundreds of millions of dollars in company-matched stock while executives were dumping their company stock.
10. Fight the Republican proposed cutting of guaranteed Social Security benefits, insisting instead that we save, strengthen, and secure Social Security for generations to come.
11. Make sure that our legislators and elected officials all understand that we expect them to uphold a commitment to preserve Social Security benefits by saving, strengthening and securing it.
12. Demand legislation that prevents Congress from spending Social Security taxes on anything but Social Security benefits.
13. Insist that our legislators firmly oppose privatization of retirement benefits at every turn because privatization of Social Security isn't fiscally responsible and won't provide American workers with a secure retirement.

We can do better. I believe we must honor our collective and historic commitment to senior citizens so that all Americans can retire with security and dignity.