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%. .However, there might be other ways to augment finances, particularly through an additional tax exemption and the Child Tax Credit. The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021 expands the Child Tax Credit for tax year 2021 in the following ways: .And third, one new cosponsor – Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) – signed on to the Social Security 2100 Act (S. 2671), bringing the cosponsor total to two. If adopted, S. 2671 would comprehensively strengthen and reform the Social Security program by basing COLAs on the CPI-E, increasing monthly benefits by 2%, 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%. .In addition to a growing number of people affected by the tax, those who are affected pay a growing share of their benefits in taxes as well. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 52 million Social Security beneficiaries paid 6.7% of their Social Security benefits as income tax in 2014, and projects that will rise in the future to 10% or more. .What Was I Thinking? .Click here to add your name to a petition, learn how you can help, or take a poll. .I applied for Social Security benefits in March 2007 when I was 62 years old. After a month I found a job. On September of 2007, I called Social Security to stop payment of my benefits because I was earning over the limits. I was told that the following year it would be automatically processed. From then on every year I got a few months payment. Now Social Security has informed me that I received too much and my overpayment is ,704. .Only five weeks remain before the conference committee's December 13th deadline, and House and Senate appropriators are urging the conferees to settle on a top-line spending number even earlier – before the Thanksgiving recess begins on November 22nd. Sen. Barbara Mikulski (MD), Chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said this week: "We believe that if an agreement on a discretionary spending number can be reached early, it will allow for more thoughtful and responsible spending decisions." .The study says the program would have saved 7 million that year if generics had been substituted for all the brand-name medicines requested by prescribers. Additionally, if Medicare patients had sought generics instead of brand-name drugs, Medicare Part D would have saved another 3 million.