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The ASPCA website, ASPCA.org, has information, including a helpful chart that can help you estimate the costs of owning a pet..For progress updates on H.R. 1902 or H.R. 1776, visit the Bill Tracking section of TSCL's website. To contact your Members of Congress to request their support for the bills, click HERE.."Is There A Subprime Car Loan Bubble?" Bob Sullivan, Credit.com, March 23, 2015..Since 2000, COLAs have increased Social Security benefits a total of 53 percent, yet typical senior expenses grew almost twice as fast - 99.3 percent. Table illustrates ten of the fastest growing costs since 2000. Where no average prices are available, numeric values from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U are used. Table shows the fastest growing costs from January 2019 to January 2020..The Obama administration will decide soon whether to appeal Monday's injunction to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. In the meantime, TSCL will keep a close eye on the immigration discussions since the President's recent orders could result in permanent and significant obligations for the Social Security and Medicare programs down the road. We will post updates here in the Legislative News section of our website..The report continues, "Two House panels last week approved legislation adding vision, hearing and dental coverage to Medicare. Dental is by far the most expensive and complicated of the three to roll out: the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office previously estimated that such coverage would cost 8 billion over 10 years, compared with billion for vision and billion for hearing coverage..Last week, most seemed doubtful that Members of Congress would successfully reach an agreement before the looming deadline due to demands from some lawmakers to attach hundreds of controversial policy riders to the package. However, this week, many are reporting that appropriators have narrowed down the list of policy riders to a more manageable number, and leaders in Congress seem surprisingly optimistic about the prospects of the massive omnibus..The reception by the Members of Congress was phenomenal. Meetings were held with Rep. David Davis, Rep. Ed Perlmutter, Rep. Doug Lamborn, Rep. John Sarbanes, Rep. Dan Boren, and Rep. Bruce Braley..The program was designed to address the needs of low–income seniors, who receive both Medicare and Medicaid. The group includes the oldest, sickest and poorest of seniors, including many Notch Babies, who tend to have multiple health problems, including the need for long term care. Although they make up only 15 percent of all Medicaid beneficiaries, they account for almost 40 percent of Medicaid expenditures, according to the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.