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In the days ahead, The Senior Citizens League will keep a close eye on the evolving budget negotiations, and we will continue to advocate for legislative solutions that would strengthen and protect your Social Security and Medicare benefits. For updates, follow us on Twitter or visit the Legislative News section of our website every Friday morning..In the coming weeks, we will continue to advocate for the legislation in the Senate, where the bill now sits. We will post updates here in the Legislative News section of our website, and on our new page on Facebook..Alexandria, VA majority of Social Security recipients would have to raid retirement savings or use a line of credit to meet even relatively modest financial emergencies, according to a new poll by The Senior Citizens League. When retirees were asked how they would raise ,000, 49 percent of respondents said they would take money from savings and another 30 percent said they would use a line of credit or borrow..New Congress Convenes.Are benefit cuts inevitable when Social Security's financing runs low in a few years? Your participation in this November's presidential election will play a critical role in how this question will be answered..Low-income seniors, including about one-quarter of all Notch Babies, may be feeling the effects of the expiration of federal stimulus funding for Medicaid that ended recently. The recession drove up Medicaid enrollment sharply, but the federal government stepped in with extra funding to help states cover the costs. Increased enrollment and decreased funding have led states to eliminate some benefits and increase the co-payments they charge..The U.S. currently has 21 Social Security Totalization Agreements in effect with other nations. The agreements allow workers who split their careers working in two countries to avoid double taxation on the same work. In addition, workers are allowed to combine earnings from both countries in order to qualify for Social Security benefits under one or both systems. The agreement with Mexico presumably would have a very different impact, however, for a number of reasons, including the fact that no other totalization agreement is with a country where so many of its citizens are living and working in our country illegally..Those people include Barbara B. - a retired home healthcare aide who lives in the Indianapolis area. "We're due for the increase," she says. But rising Part B premiums will likely take her entire COLA, leaving her with no increase at all in her net operating Social Security benefit again in 2018..TSCL supports the "No Social Security for Illegal Immigrants Act" introduced by Representative Dana Rohrabacher which would ban the use of earnings for jobs worked while illegal to be used to determine entitlement.