Low and middle-income earners pay taxes on all of their earnings. In recent years, however, the share of total wages earned in the U.S. and subject to Social Security payroll tax has declined because the earnings of the most highly paid workers have grown rapidly. Most of the proposals to increase the taxable maximum would also raise benefits of the affected workers by counting earnings above the old cap in the benefit formula. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that eliminating the taxable maximum would extend the Social Security solvency as much as 50 years.[1] .Sources: "Social Security, Treasury Target Taxpayers For Their Parents' Decades-Old Debts," Marc Fisher, The Washington Post, April 10, 201 .More than 50% of older households surveyed by the National Institute on Aging say that they have at least one adult child living within 10 miles. But retirement housing and care plans can go awry when an adult child needs to relocate — most often because of a job. .By Rick Delaney, Chairman of the Board .But lower COLAs and changes that would increase seniors' Medicare costs still remain key targets of plans to lower federal spending. Late last year, the budget conference committee responsible for heading off another government shutdown heard deficit reduction options from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Among those having the biggest impact on reducing government spending are proposals to increase deductibles and co-insurance for Medicare — cutting federal spending about 4 billion. In addition, moving to using the more slowly-growing chained CPI to determine COLAs would cut government spending by an estimated 8.5 billion on Social Security and other federal benefit programs, like military retirement, through 2023. .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) .This study looks at 39 expenditures that are typical for people age 65 and up, comparing the growth in the prices of these goods and services to the growth in the annual COLAs. It includes cost increases in Medicare premiums and out of pocket costs that aren't tracked under the index currently used to calculate the COLA. .On Wednesday, the Senate Finance Committee held a hearing to question Congressman Tom Price (GA-6), an orthopedic surgeon from Georgia who was nominated by President Trump to become the next Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). If confirmed, Congressman Price will lead the agency that has jurisdiction over Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and many other critical health programs. .His decorations include the Meritorious Service Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal with 1 Oak Leaf Cluster, Air Force Achievement Medal, Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Palm, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal, and Vietnam Service Medal with 9 Battle Stars.