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While the additional payroll tax went directly to the Part A Trust Fund, the 3.8% "Medicare" net investment tax was never transferred to Part A. It wound up going straight into the U.S. General Fund where it could be appropriated for any government spending..You can work while you receive Social Security benefits. When you do, your benefits may be reduced if you earn more than certain limits. But after you reach full retirement age, the Social Security Administration recalculates your benefits and it will be increased to account for the benefits withheld due to excess earnings. The work you do now could mean a higher benefit for you in the future, and that will be important in helping you to afford health care and other big cost increases later on..But should President Trump win a second term there will be pressure on him from members of his own party and some of his long-time supporters to violate his pledge to protect Social Security and Medicare when he ran for President the first time..The blueprint also lays out some modifications to the Social Security program. It would close the Disability Insurance trust fund's shortfall by transferring funds from the Old Age and Survivor's Insurance trust fund over a period of five years. TSCL's members and supporters overwhelmingly oppose the transfer of funds from one trust fund to another since it would put the OASI trust fund on worse financial footing. However, we were pleased to see that President Obama did not include the adoption of the "chained" CPI in his budget blueprint as he did two years ago..TSCL was pleased to see seven new cosponsors sign on to the bill this week, and we will continue to advocate for it on Capitol Hill through the remainder of the 114th Congress..The Social Security Cost-Of-Living Adjustment is likely to be the first target for cuts. Most deficit plans in recent years propose tying the annual inflation boost to a more slowly - growing consumer price index known as the chained CPI. The new tax legislation, in fact, adopts the chained CPI to adjust tax brackets and the new expanded standard deduction. That will mean the standard deduction will grow more slowly than before and that people will wind up in higher tax brackets, or a greater portion of their income will be subject to tax, more quickly than before. For retirees, the chained CPI would mean lower COLAs, as well - if Congress extends the change to Social Security..The report, which was published in the medical journal Heart, also notes that the more you eat, the greater your risk, with each additional weekly serving of a half-cup of fried food increasing that risk by 3 percent..COLAs Go Over The Fiscal Cliff.While economists are still sorting out the reason for the fall in inflation, I recently asked what you have observed in the way of prices. Are the goods and services on which you typically spend most of your budget really falling - or are those prices actually going up?