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Getting the COVID-19 vaccine was one of the most unforgettable experiences of my life. It was emotional for a lot of people who were there. I cried when I got both of my shots - not because it hurt, but from the overwhelming sense of relief, joy and gratitude. "Mo," the chief of our local Emergency Medical Services who gave me my second dose, teared up too. He said he was relieved for the opportunity to save lives "this way" rather than making so many grim ambulance calls..The Obama Administration and proponents of Obamacare have continued to downplay the cancellations of the health insurance of 4.7 million individual policy-holders who received notices that our polices would be ending in 2014 because they didn't comply with the new healthcare law. I was able to temporarily renew my so-called "junk policy." I wanted to keep it because my deductible is 50% lower than the lowest deductible found on any comparable policy in my area on the exchange, and my current plan has a much less restrictive provider network. Most importantly my premium is about 60% lower than I would pay on the exchange, that's after the subsidy..Another concern about congressional inaction on the debt ceiling is the potential for cuts to programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. In recent debates, Social Security benefits have been used as a bargaining chip and have been held hostage to the debt limit increase. Some retirees have felt the sting of unexpected benefit cuts. In 2015, following the passage of the Bipartisan Budget Act, millions of seniors, already eligible for Social Security benefits, learned that an important claiming method called "file and suspend" a particularly important protection for women who tend to have lower benefits than men would no longer be an option to them..Immigrants use fake or stolen Social Security numbers to work in the U.S., and the SSA receives more than 9 million W2s every year in which the name and Social Security number don't match those in the Administration's records. Those W2s are saved to a special Earnings Suspense File until the SSA reconciles them with the rightful owner at a later date, which can occur years later when a claim is filed..Will higher-income workers pay their fair share of taxes to Social Security?.For many years TSCL has led the fight to provide additional compensation to those affected..According to an article last week in StatNews, a newsletter that covers health and medical issues, the answer seems to be "whichever one is available to you first.".TSCL supports a special provision of the Senate bill introduced by Senators Orrin Hatch and Marco Rubio. The provision would ban earnings from jobs worked illegally from being used to determine entitlement to Social Security benefits and for calculating the amount of initial benefits legislation that TSCL and TSCL's grassroots members have long supported. But the Senate bill does not close a related loophole in current law that allows older immigrants who received "non-work" Social Security numbers issued prior to 2004 to claim Social Security benefits without having ever received work authorization..The U.S. Treasury has borrowed .8 trillion from Social Security, but in recent years Congress has battled over the borrowing required to repay the Trust Fund. Some are calling instead for COLA and other "entitlement" cuts.