Rep. Peter DeFazio (OR-4) introduced H.R. 1031 on March 7, 201It has since been referred to the Committee on Ways and Means and the Committee on the Budget. ."This leaves 20 percent of survey participants who just aren't sure if their Social Security benefits will be taxable this tax season or not, more than triple the 6 percent who were uncertain about the 2019 tax year," Johnson says. The survey, which was conducted online from mid-January through February, had more than 864 participants. .On Tuesday, President Obama released his .901 trillion budget blueprint for fiscal 201The proposal calls for more than 0 billion in new revenues by closing certain tax loopholes, and it would replace the "sequester" beginning in 2016 with .2 trillion in new spending cuts. It adheres to the caps for discretionary spending that were set back in December, but it also proposes billion in extra investments through the so-called "Opportunity, Growth and Security Initiative." .At the hearing, the Ranking Member of the Committee – Senator Bob Casey (PA) – presented a bill he introduced called the Beneficiary Enrollment Notification and Eligibility Simplification (BENES) Act. If adopted, his bill would simplify the Medicare enrollment process and help those nearing eligibility avoid costly penalties for late enrollment. .Now there are ads in various parts of the country being run by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, accusing House Republicans of doing the bidding of drug industry donors by opposing the bill. Unremarked upon are the House Democrats who've also received money from the industry — and whose opposition is seen as potentially fatal to the legislation. .In addition, one new cosponsor – Rep. Jared Nadler (NY-10) – signed on to the Social Security Fairness Act (H.R. 973) this week, bringing the total up to 15The bill, if signed into law, would repeal two Social Security provisions – the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) – that unfairly reduce or eliminate the earned Social Security benefits of millions of retired teachers, firefighters, police officers, and other state or local government employees each year. TSCL believes the two provisions must be repealed as soon as possible so that public servants receive the retirement security they have earned and deserve. .Although no other generation has yet been affected by a similar Notch, that could change in the future. Congressional inaction on Social Security's long-term financing problems could give birth to a whole new generation of Notch Babies. During recent hearings on the need for making Social Security more sustainable as Baby Boomers near retirement, David Walker, the Comptroller General of the United States, confirmed this saying "Doing nothing means that we are going to head to a precipitous decline in benefits. Remember the Notch Baby problem?" he asked. "This would be a Notch Baby problem magnified multiple times and it should not be allowed to happen." (10) .The Medicare Part D "doughnut hole" – the gap in coverage that occurs when beneficiaries reach their initial annual payment limit – is costing many older Americans thousands of dollars per year. Not all beneficiaries hit the limit each year, but in a recent survey of TSCL's members and supporters, we learned that 28%, more than one-in-four respondents, fell into the doughnut hole in 2015. .This week, the CBO released its report on the long term budget outlook, which found that the federal debt is projected to increase from today's rate of 74 percent of GDP to 106 percent of GDP in twenty-five years if no major changes are made. The nonpartisan agency said the trend cannot be sustained indefinitely, and already, the total amount of debt held by the public is "higher than at any point in U.S. history except a brief period around World War II."