Legislative Update: Tell Us What Issues Are Most Critical To You

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Legislative Update: Tell Us What Issues Are Most Critical To You

By Patty Gaul, Director of Legislative Affairs, TREA Senior Citizens League

Happy New Year!

As youï¿½ve noticed, this edition of The Advisor contains our annual survey in which you - our members and supporters - tell us what issues are most critical to you. Weï¿½ll use the information that we gather to help craft our legislative program for the coming two years, the 109th Congress.

TSCL receives no grant money from the government. We do not sell anything. We subsist on donations by you: our members and supporters. This allows us to be beholden only to you.

Please take a few minutes and let us know how your Social Security Cost-Of-Living Adjustment (COLA) is holding up, how the Medicare premium is affecting your Social Security cost-of-living increase, and how you see the future of the Social Security program and its trust funds.

During the months of November and December while Congress was out of session, the legislative team spent its time reviewing various legislative proposals that were introduced in the 108th Congress and reading about how things such as the Medicare prescription drug card program were affecting seniors.

We will certainly continue our fight for a settlement of the disparity of the Social Security Notch, and we will continue our efforts to see that seniors receive a more accurate COLA through the use of a ï¿½seniorsï¿½ onlyï¿½ consumer price index (CPI) formula. Because seniors spend so much of their money in ways that young urban workers generally do not ï¿½ such as on the jump in their Medicare premium and on health care ï¿½ seniors should have their Social Security COLA reflect those steep increases in their cost- of-living.

As Members of Congress look toward ensuring the viability of the Social Security program, what changes do you think should be made and what changes could you accept if made incrementally and done in such a way that individuals had time to plan for them before they were set to retire?

I hope that you will take a minute and fill out the survey so that we can better serve you here in Washington. Thank you, and have a safe, healthy and joyous 2005.

January 2005