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The Fiscal Responsibility and Retirement Security Act of 2011 was passed by a House panel this week. The bill was previously approved by the House Ways and Means Committee and is now scheduled for a House floor vote..Enrollment in the demonstration program far exceeds early target of 1–2 million beneficiaries set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. If all 26 state proposals are approved, approximately 3 million dual–eligible beneficiaries, about 40 percent of seniors who receive both Medicare and Medicaid, would be automatically enrolled into new managed–care plans..Over the past year, some of the most difficult emails that TSCL received came from those of you who describe wrenching situations caused in large part by high healthcare costs and emergency needs that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic and the weather-related disasters of 2020. That has sometimes included taking in adult children and your grandchildren, and often providing financial assistance from your own savings..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 Senior Citizens League is relieved that Members of Congress were able to avert the Fiscal Cliff and provide a "doc fix" without enacting harsh benefit cuts. However, topics like "chaining" the Social Security COLA and increasing means testing measures within Medicare will likely resurface next month, when Congress will be required to raise the debt ceiling address the spending cuts once again. In the meantime, TSCL will continue to inform Members of Congress about the consequences of cutting Social Security and Medicare benefits, and we will post updates here in the Legislative News section of our website..There are apparently also political and ideological reasons for the reluctance at this point to get the vaccine when one becomes available. According to one survey, attitudes were split along party lines..How the Pandemic is Affecting Retirement Savings as of December 31, 2020.In addition, the legislation froze the income thresholds at which the higher premiums are triggered so more seniors will have to pay the higher premiums as incomes gradually grow over time. TSCL's Legislative Assistant, Mike Watson, estimates that "individual seniors who made between ,000 and ,000 in 2010 could be subjected to the 'means test' in 2019, because of the frozen income thresholds. In addition, if the income thresholds for the 'means test' were allowed to increase, they would rise to about 0,500 to 1,800 in 2019.".COLAs became automatic with the one that became payable on July 1, 1975 and continued to average 8.7% annually from 1975 through 198Then the bottom seemed to fall out. From 1983 through 2009 COLAs averaged 3.1%. From 2010 to Do you see a pattern here? I do. We may never know the full details, but what we do know is that our government economists at the Bureau of Labor Statistics changed the way they measured price changes. The Consumer Price Index Handbook of the Bureau of Labor Statistics contains an extensive list of ongoing changes to their methodology in measuring price change. Since the 1980s the BLS has implemented 30 changes, and many of those changes reduce the measured rate of inflation. That in turn means slower growth in Social Security benefits over time.