News

  • Legislative Update Week Ending September 8 2017

    TSCL believes this is good news for the Social Security and Medicare systems, but there is no doubt that if the deferred taxes are never re-paid, it will cause major damage to both programs. .Recently we learned of a woman, now in her 80's, who has moved twice in the past decade to be close to her daughter. Her first move was from the family home in Connecticut to an up-scale retirement community in Virginia, and more recently following her daughter to Arizona after her son-in-law's job changed. Her former Virginia home has been sitting on the market for months. That's posing a drain on her resources, adding unanticipated costs for new housing at a time when her need for caregiving services is growing. Her daughter worried that the former facility wasn't handling things well. .(Washington, DC) – Older Americans are not to blame for an exploding federal budget deficit warns The Senior Citizens League. "Congress can't cut taxes by an estimated .7 trillion and then turn around and blame rising deficits on ‘entitlements' and aging," says Mary Johnson, a Social Security and Medicare policy analyst for The Senior Citizens League. … Continued

  • Legislative Update Week Ending November 9 2018

    The most widely-discussed proposals to revamp Social Security include raising the eligibility age, making the benefit formula less generous, and reducing the Social Security cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs). Reducing COLAs would impact the lifetime Social Security benefits of all current beneficiaries, as well as affecting future retirees. Under discussion is a proposal that would reduce COLAs by switching to a more slowly-growing, "chained" consumer price index to calculate the annual benefit boost. In fact the new tax law, recently did something similar. Indexing of income tax brackets, the standard deduction, and other parameters of the tax code for inflation was tied to a chained COLA. That means that people will pay higher taxes over time, as the standard deduction becomes less generous, while rising income would tend to push older taxpayers into higher brackets. .Use call block technology. If you have a smart phone, you can block calls from unknown numbers. Some land line phones also have similar technology. .Provide a guaranteed minimum COLA of 3 percent. Providing a COLA guarantee of 3 percent in years when no, or an extremely low COLA is payable would eliminate the triggering of hold harmless and subsequent Medicare premium spikes on a program-wide basis. Because the vast majority of beneficiaries would be able to afford their premium increase, the cost of Part B premiums would be shared over the greatest possible number of beneficiaries, keeping Part B increases lower. … Continued

Since passage of Medicare in 1965 all seniors received the same benefits for the same standard premium. But in 2003, Congress took the unprecedented step of passing legislation that required "upper-income" seniors to pay increased premiums for Medicare Part B. Forcing these seniors to pay more for the same Medicare benefits is known as the "means test." .When AZT, the first effective drug for combating the virus that causes AIDS, was introduced in 1992, it was priced at up to ,000 a year or about 0 a month. It was the most expensive prescription drug in history, at that time. The price was widely denounced as "inhuman." Today that price gets you some drugs for toenail fungus. .Gang of Eight Defends Immigration Reform Plan .Rick is currently retired from the Central Georgia Multiple Listing Service, Inc., after serving 15 years as President and Chief Executive Officer. .Mr. Kluck and The Senior Citizens League's legislative team met with several congressional offices — including the offices of House Veterans' Affairs Committee Ranking Member Phil Roe (TN-1) and House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee Chairman John Larson (CT-1) — to discuss goals and strategies for the 116th Congress, which officially began on January 3rd, 2019. .The toll free number for the VA Hotline is . .Year after year, seniors are struggling with higher-priced groceries, copays, deductibles and prescription medications. To make matters worse, Republicans in Congress are passing bills that raise healthcare and housing costs for seniors. .Because Medicare is such a crucial program, most members of Congress usually stumble over themselves to protect it. However, if the situation ever presents itself, they will use threats to Medicare to bash the other party. .Following the meeting at the White House, Congressman Welch told reporters: "It simply makes no sense for Medicare to buy wholesale and pay retail prices. As a businessman, President Trump understands that. I hope he helps us enact our legislation to provide urgently needed relief to consumers and taxpayers." In addition, Congressman Cummings said, "We had a productive meeting today … The President committed to reviewing our proposal, and he seemed enthusiastic about the idea."