Do you see piles of mail and unopened bills? Your friend's mail may be a clue to how well she is managing her finances. Do you see unopened bills that have post- marks older than 30 days? Have you spotted letters from banks, creditors or insurers referring to overdrawn balances and missing payments?."Many food companies decrease the size of their containers, while keeping the same price," Joe said in his comments about price increases that he's observed. "Cost increases get masked when container sizes shrink." For example, after last year's hurricanes, a major orange shortage nationwide led to shrinking orange juice bottles. "Brands that originally sold in 64 oz containers, downsized to 59 oz and then to 52 oz - a 20 percent reduction in what our orange juice money buys today," Joe says..Legislation is currently under consideration in the House, The Social Security 2100 Act, that would adjust the income thresholds that subject Social Security benefits to taxation, from ,000 to ,000 for single filers and from ,000 to 0,000 for joint filers. According to a survey by The Senior Citizens League, 55 percent of survey participants support lifting the threshold for taxation of Social Security benefits to those levels, and only 12 percent oppose. The bill would pay for this as well as providing a boost in Social Security benefits and a more generous cost-of-living adjustment, by increasing the amount of wages subject to payroll taxes and by very gradually increasing the tax rate that workers and employers pay..Paralleling his civilian career was his military career in the Army and Air Force reserve components as a senior non-commissioned officer. He retired from the Maryland Air National Guard after 30 years of service in 200In 1996, Larry was part of the first United States military mission to Romania since World War II. His personal awards include the Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Force Commendation medal, the Air Force Achievement Medal, and the Master Chaplains' Assistant Badge..On August 15th, President Obama went on the record saying, "We should extend the payroll tax cut as soon as possible, so that workers have more money in their paychecks next year and businesses have more customers next year.".Finally, Rep. Rodney Davis's Social Security Fairness Act gained eight new cosponsors this week, bringing the total up to forty-six. They are: Reps. John Tierney, Joe Courtney, Julia Brownley, Aaron Schock, Peter Welch, James McGovern, Lois Capps, and Elijah Cummings. If signed into law, H.R. 1795 would repeal the Government Pension Offset and the Windfall Elimination Provision two provisions that unfairly reduce the earned Social Security benefits of millions of teachers, firefighters, peace officers, and other state or local government employees each year..Representatives Donna E. Shalala, Phil Roe, M.D., Ann McLane Kuster, and Larry Bucshon M.D. have introduced legislation to eliminate out-of-pocket costs for vaccines to everyone under Medicare. Currently, Medicare vaccine coverage is split between Medicare Part B and Medicare Part D. Seniors can access vaccines covered under Part B - such as flu, pneumonia and Hepatitis - with no out-of-pocket costs. However, under Part D, vaccines such as shingles and pertussis often include a cost to beneficiaries..About four million seniors born from 1917 through 1926, commonly referred to as "Notch Babies," would receive their choice of a ,000 lump-sum payable in four annual installments, or higher monthly Social Security benefits. The legislation, known as "The Notch Fairness Act" seeks to correct a disparity in benefits caused the last time Congress overhauled the benefit formula in 1977, that began to affect seniors who started to retire just two years later.."Anyone would have to acknowledge that a lot of what has gone on with the pharmaceutical industry as it relates to their contacts with doctors is lobbying, pure and simple," McCaskill said in the hearing. "If we are going to limit the lunches that can be bought for members of Congress in the context of lobbying, shouldn't we have the same kind of disclosures with doctors? And if it is in fact about the patients, the industry should have no problem disclosing how much money they are spending on doctors in terms of recreational time. I'm talking about golf, I'm talking about trips, I'm talking about dinners, I'm talking about expensive wine. Why in the world would we allow that to go on without the public and the patients knowing that's going on?"
