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This year, more than 50% of Social Security beneficiaries paid taxes on their benefits, even though many of them only made twice the federal poverty level in income. Do you believe this is fair, and if not, what should be done about it?.During the debate over the debt limit, you undoubtedly heard the President try to scare you into believing Social Security checks would not come. Let me be blunt. The federal government takes in nearly seven times more than it needs every month to pay Social Security checks. The money was there. If checks didn't come, it would have been because the President had chosen not to pay them. You did not read that wrong. If you had not received your Social Security payment, it was because the President has directed the Secretary of the Treasury not to pay it..Consumer price index data show that the rate of inflation has changed significantly over the past decade, and has yet to return to the average rate during the decade prior to the 2010 Great Recession. From 1999 to 2008, COLAs averaged 3%. Since 2010, however, the COLA, which is tied to the increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, has averaged just 1.4%. Since that year, inflation has been so low that there was no COLA payable three times - in 2010, 2011, and 201In 2017, inflation was almost zero at just 0.3 percentage point. This is not normal, and research on the costs experienced by older Americans indicates the COLA often doesn't reflect inflation that retirees actually experience..Support Grows for Key Bills.This week, House and Senate lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill to begin the "lame duck" session. In addition, The Senior Citizens League saw two key Medicare bills gain support in Congress..No: 70%.The tax cut, which reduced the Social Security payroll tax for employees from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent, makes the Social Security trust funds reliant on general revenues and undermines the self-funding nature of the program. Social Security is funded by payroll taxes, and currently faces a billion cash-flow deficit. Extending the tax cut could exacerbate the program's funding issues..Shortly after the ruling was issued, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said his department would not begin accepting applications for the deferred deportation program on Wednesday as scheduled. The program would have allowed an estimated 330,000 illegal immigrants to apply for work permits and deportation deferrals. Secretary Johnson also said the administration will suspend May plans to begin accepting deferred deportation requests from the parents of U.S. citizens. In total, the two programs would have delayed the deportation of more than 4 million illegal immigrants..As an indicator of low inflation, based on consumer price index data through April of this year, Johnson estimates that the COLA for 2019 will be about 1.7%percent. That number could change, since there are still five months of consumer price index data to be collected before the Social Security Administration announces the COLA in October.