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Recently a friend of mine in her late 70's wondered, "How would I know it's time for assisted living if I live alone?" She has no close family of her own for caregiving. What do you recommend for people like this?.Seniors deserve a Washington that works for them, and every American should be able to retire and live with dignity. I'm committed to doing everything I can in the Senate to ensure that happens..This week, the Congressional Budget Office released its analysis of the Senate's new Better Care Reconciliation Act, and leaders in the Senate postponed a vote on it until after the week-long holiday recess..This week, The Senior Citizens League released its annual "Loss of Buying Power" study, which found that Social Security benefits have lost 34 percent of their purchasing power since 2000. In addition, lawmakers in the House and Senate left Washington for the holiday recess..H.R. 1030 has been referred to various committees including the House Ways and Means Committee for further consideration. In an effort to be of all possible assistance to you, I have taken the liberty of sharing your support for this legislation with my colleagues on the committee. As they continue to review the Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers Act, you can be sure they will keep your views in mind..That has never been truer than in this Congress. In trying to craft the new legislation to improve Medicare benefits and lower drug prices, it turns out it's not just Democrat vs. Republican, it's also Senate vs. House, Democrat vs. Democrat, and to a lesser extent, Republican vs. Republican..Unfortunately, it is not as cut-and-dried as "everyone will now pay per month for their insulin." It is much more complicated than that..In a letter to Congressman Jones, Ed Cates TSCL's Chairman wrote: "The Senior Citizens League lends its enthusiastic support and the support of its membership to the Social Security Guarantee Act … We salute you for introducing legislation that would make the Social Security program more fair and reliable, and we look forward to informing our members and supporters about your efforts.".It turned out that Flo was working for the deep pocketed pharmaceutical industry. They successfully used her ad to sink major legislation proposed by President Bill Clinton to add a voluntary drug benefit to Medicare. It wasn't until 2003 that the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act, which added the Part D drug benefit to Medicare, was finally signed into law by President George W. Bush. But, although the bill provided a drug benefit, it specifically prohibited Medicare from negotiating prices with drug manufacturers, even though Medicare negotiates prices for almost every other service and for Part B drugs. High drug prices put patient's lives at risk every day when people can't afford to fill their prescriptions.