The amount of the credit will increase for many taxpayers. .Back in April, President Trump picked out a single computer model of coronavirus spread to use for guidance about the coronavirus. It turns out that that model initially had rosier estimates than others, and it projected many fewer Covid-19 deaths. .Recent healthcare cost data have the experts perplexed. According to a new analysis from actuaries of the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services, national healthcare spending in 2011 grew at just 3.9 percent. This is the third consecutive year it's grown so slowly, making it the slowest pace in the more than 50 years such data have been tracked. Federal officials don't know for sure if it's a temporary fluke due to prolonged recessionary effects, or part of a long-term trend. .This week, after receiving countless complains from seniors without cell phone access, the Social Security Administration removed the text requirement from the online account login process. In addition, lawmakers continued their seven-week congressional recess. .On Tuesday, the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee approved legislation that would repeal and replace the sustainable growth rate (SGR), which is the flawed formula that is currently used to determine reimbursements for physicians who treat Medicare patients. The SGR regularly calls for steep pay cuts for doctors and other providers, threatening beneficiaries' access to medical care. .The letter that TSCL delivered to congressional leaders this week urged lawmakers to begin immediate discussions about lifting the debt limit and preventing a default on the federal debt. Art Cooper – Chairman of TSCL's Board of Trustees – wrote: "Our supporters nation-wide hope you will act swiftly and responsibly to avert delays in Social Security benefits and payments to Medicare providers, and they will not tolerate additional cuts to their earned Social Security benefits." .Fourth, one new cosponsor – Representative Raul Ruiz (CA-36) – signed on to Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act (H.R. 242), bringing the total up to forty-four. This bill, if adopted, would require the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to negotiate lower prescription drug prices on behalf of Medicare Part D beneficiaries. Under current law, CMS is prohibited from doing so. .Legislators cannot effectively operate on their own without the input of those who elected them. After all, the Constitution guarantees "the right of the people to petition the government for redress of grievance," acknowledging that calling upon our elected representatives is a fundamental principle of our democracy. TSCL's grassroots petition campaign highlighted this freedom and successfully grabbed not just the ears, but the eyes and attention of Congress toward the concerns of millions of seniors nationwide. .The debts in question involved cases decades old, and debts many taxpayers never even knew about — for benefits that were paid to their parents or guardians when they were children. If an overpayment is made on behalf of a child (such as survivors benefits) the child could be held liable years later as an adult.