Older Americans represent a wealth of experience, knowledge, and wisdom that it would be imprudent for us to ignore. With the Baby Boom generation entering the transition into old age, policies and programs that protect older Americans from poverty, financial distress, prohibitive health care costs, and consumer fraud become more important than ever.

Social Security and Medicare are important pieces of the federal government's commitment to older Americans. As the Baby Boomers age, Washington must take steps now to ensure that the Social Security trust fund will continue to meet its obligations. No American should feel like Social Security won't be there when he or she retires.

President Bush and Saxby Chambliss have the wrong approach. They want to privatize Social Security and risk the guaranteed benefits that older Americans have been relying on for over 70 years.

The first step in protecting Social Security is to get Washington's fiscal house in order. We must stop using Social Security as financing for our growing national debt and as a piggy bank to pay for lawmakers' pet projects.

Second, we have to get our economy moving again. The Social Security and Medicare trust funds are in better fiscal shape when we have more Americans working, working at higher paying jobs, and when more Americans have health insurance.

After we take these steps, if the long-term promise of Social Security is still threatened by potential insolvency, we must come together in a responsible and nonpartisan way to find solutions. The Social Security reforms of 1983 should be our model - experts sat down and found common ground that was reasoned and fair, and they did it without regard to politics or party agendas.

We also need to ensure that the Medicare trust fund remains solvent. Cutting costs in a way that does not compromise the care that older Americans receive is the most sensible way to work toward solvency. One easy way to attain cost savings is for Medicare to start negotiating on behalf of the 25 million prescription drug subscribers to lower prescription drug costs.

Individual accounts for retirees are very popular. However, laws need to be strengthened to make sure that workers' retirement savings are protected from bankruptcy and substandard investment practices. Too many corporations are using their employees' pensions to keep their balance sheets in the black and to provide bigger returns for their investors.

Of course Social Security and Medicare are not the only programs that help older Americans. We need to increase funding to fight Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, which today afflict more than 4 million and 1.5 million Americans respectively. Scientists say that cures can be discovered if we make the investment to find them. Millions of Americans and their families can be spared the pain these diseases inflict if we make a serious commitment to this important research.

Protecting seniors also means making sure age discrimination laws are enforced, and that the Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Attorney General are prepared to act when unscrupulous sellers try to defraud consumers and investors.

Finally, Washington lawmakers must also remember that it is not just federal programs that keep older Americans well-cared for; it is often family members who carry most of the load. We should provide assistance to people when they choose to help a loved one who requires extra attention.