Background Information: Once Congress returns from the August recess, they will only have until September 30th to raise the debt ceiling and prevent the government from shutting down. In the past, government shutdowns have meant a delay in payments for Social Security benefits, causing unnecessary fiscal hardship for many seniors. Question: What are you doing to ensure the government avoids defaulting on the federal debt? .Look into mail-order pharmacies. When ordering by mail you save money because you order in quantity – a 90-day versus a 30-day supply. Many mail order pharmacies charge lower co-pays for a 90-day supply than what you pay for a 60-day. Check with your drug plan to find out if mail order is available. .Finally, the Social Security Fairness Act (H.R.1205) from Congressman Rodney Davis (IL-13) gained ten new cosponsors this week, bringing the total up to 158 in the House. The bill, if adopted, would repeal two provisions of the Social Security Act that reduce the earned benefits of millions of state and local government employees each year. .With So Much At Stake It's Time to Challenge Elected Lawmakers! .Fixing this problem seems to be more complicated than passing a continuing resolution to temporarily fund the government. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has made it known that no Republican Senators will support raising the debt ceiling and without Republican support Democrats will have to resort to a special procedure called "reconciliation" in order to pass it because of the Senate filibuster rule. In the past there has been partisan squabbling over raising the debt ceiling but when it came right down to it both sides ended up voting to raise it. We'll find out very soon whether that will happen this time. .This week, Congressman John Larson (CT-1) – Chairman of the House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee – introduced the Social Security 2100 Act (H.R. 860) along with the support of more than two hundred original House cosponsors. Senator Richard Blumenthal (CT) also introduced the companion bill – S. 269 – in the Senate this week along with Senator Chris Van Hollen (MD). .But, again to be fair, the situation was the same when the Democrats were the majority in the Senate. So perhaps the issue is not which party is in control. Maybe it's the within the institution of the Senate itself. Or maybe it's the fact that voters keep sending Senators to Washington who are afraid to compromise on issues because the voters are so divided about what they done. .TSCL is not the only organization to warn about the prospect of another extremely low COLA next year. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in its latest budget report projected that next year's COLA would be 1.6%. Seniors depend on COLAS to protect the buying power of benefits from rising costs over retirement, which can last as long as 25 or 30 years. But over the past five years, COLAs have been at record lows, averaging only 1.4% after averaging about 4% per year since COLAs became automatic in 1975. .On Wednesday, after a nine-hour markup, lawmakers on the House Budget Committee approved a .9 trillion resolution to fund the federal government through fiscal 201The proposal includes .5 trillion in spending cuts, including 9 billion to the Medicare program. To accomplish this, it would transform Medicare into a premium-support program over a seven-year period, where beneficiaries would be given vouchers to purchase private insurance from a list of authorized plans.