TSCL agrees that the WEP and the GPO must be repealed as soon as possible so that public employees receive the retirement benefits they have earned and deserve. We look forward to working closely with Sen. Brown in the coming months to help build support for his important new bill..If signed into law, the BCRA would create an immediate funding crisis for the Medicare Part A Trust Fund by eliminating a key revenue source and providing the wealthiest Americans with a massive tax cut. Do you support this move, and what efforts would you back to address the Medicare funding crisis?.Congressional Recess Begins.But, unlike other parts of the tax code which are adjusted for inflation, such as income brackets, the income thresholds that subject a portion of Social Security benefits to taxation have never been adjusted. "Today, the Social Security benefits of even modest-income retirees - those who have modified gross incomes of more than ,000 or ,000 - are affected by the tax," Johnson says. Had the income thresholds been adjusted for inflation the ,000 threshold would be about ,137 today and the ,000 would be about ,815, using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' inflation calculator..Refinancing can be a good way to reduce your monthly mortgage payments but doing so generally means you extend the pay-off period of your loan and spend more money on interest up front. Choosing a 15 - or even 10 - year loan can save you money on interest, but the monthly payments will be higher and potentially harder to sustain over time..Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle agree that the current payment formula the sustainable growth rate is fundamentally flawed. TSCL was disappointed when the Affordable Care Act did not address the issue in 2010, but many believe that the lame-duck session following the November election will provide a prime opportunity for Congress to finally repeal the faulty formula. The replacement options are numerous, however, and many of them are contentious. Just three months away, it still remains unclear which solution lawmakers could agree upon..With my first bill, the Save Social Security Act, we are keeping our promise to our seniors and strengthening Social Security. This legislation eliminates the Social Security tax break for people making over 0,000 a year, while maintaining it for income earned from the current cap of 7,200 up to 0,000. This is a fairer way to extend the life of the program. In fact, the Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration found that my legislation would extend the program's solvency for another 30 years, keeping it on firm financial footing through 206At that point, it would also close 2/3 of the remaining gap, allowing Social Security to still pay 90 percent of benefits..The problem is well known, but so far Congress has taken no action to address it. The Medicare Trustees have for years described in their annual report how rising Medicare costs will take an ever-growing portion of Social Security benefits. They estimate that Medicare Part B and Part D premiums, as well as cost sharing for both programs, currently equals just 24 percent of the level of the average Social Security benefit. But that estimate does not include many of the typical Medicare costs that most retirees actually have, and thus understates the scope of the problem. The findings based on your participation in TSCL's annual Senior Survey is proof of that..New legislation to help the economy and give relief to the American people is urgently needed because at the end of this week the 0/month that unemployed workers were receiving will expire. In addition, there has been an order in place stopping any evictions of people from their homes if they fell behind in the mortgage payments or rent. That also expires at the end of this week.
