In a statement that was released shortly thereafter, White House spokesperson Brandi Hoffine said, "Today, two judges of the 5th Circuit chose to misinterpret the facts and the law in denying the government's request for a stay. As the powerful dissent from Judge Higginson recognizes, President Obama's immigration executive actions are fully consistent with the law." .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. .While more than 47 million citizens of the United States are Medicare beneficiaries, each day 10,000 newly eligible citizens enroll in the Medicare program. And, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund — the fund that pays the Medicare bills — is projected to become exhausted in 202On top of this, the Department of Justice estimates that billion is lost each year from fraud in the Medicare program. .Both my wife & I are Notch Babies, and should have had higher Social Security benefits than we got. Instead of Congress fighting amongst themselves, we would be better served if they would pass a bill to catch up on our money. Are they waiting for us to die? I am 91, and my wife is 8It's a struggle to live on our benefits. .To fix the program, TSCL also supports an increase in Continuing Disability Reviews, which are conducted to determine whether an enrollee still qualifies for benefits, and an increase in the payroll tax cap, which currently sits at 8,500. We will continue to advocate for these and other long-term solutions that we believe would return the program to solvency responsibly. .Planning healthcare costs is extremely important, but not an easy task. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, healthcare expenses, on average, accounted for nearly 15 percent of Medicare household budgets in 200But even if you're in good health today, you're not out of the woods. The amount you spend on healthcare not only grows every year, but your need for more healthcare services increases with age. .The amount you pay for your CT scan will vary by your Medicare Advantage plan and whether you get your CT scan from a preferred provider. You will need to call your plan to learn the out-of-pocket cost details, and to make sure the facility, doctors, and medical technicians performing the CT scan are preferred providers with your Medicare Advantage plan. You could pay considerably more if you use providers who are not under contract with your Medicare Advantage plan. Call the customer service number on the back of your health plan's card, have your questions written down and be ready to take notes. .TSCL believes COLAs need to be more fairly and accurately calculated, and strongly supports recently introduced legislation that would provide an emergency COLA. To learn more, visit . .Second, the Social Security 2100 Act (H.R. 1902) gained one new cosponsor in Representative Jimmy Gomez (CA-34), bringing the cosponsor total to 16If signed into law, H.R. 1902 would strengthen Social Security benefits by improving the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), increasing monthly benefits by 2 percent, creating a new Special Minimum Benefit equal to 125% of the poverty line, providing a tax cut to Social Security beneficiaries, applying the payroll tax to annual income over 0,000, and gradually increasing the payroll tax rate by 0.25%.