In the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the first generation of drugs was mediocre at best, he said. As scientists learned more about the virus and the disease it causes, the medicines became more effective. That may be a model for what we are going to have here. We may not get the best vaccine up front. But hopefully it will be good enough and will be replaced later by better vaccines. We have may just have to live with that until we get a better one..If you buy your diabetic testing supplies through mail order, you MUST get your supplies through contract suppliers in Medicare's new National Mail Order Program in order for Medicare to pay. This applies to beneficiaries living in all parts of the United States. Medicare defines mail order as all home deliveries..In short, since 2015 Congress apparently forgot about the deficit and went on a spending spree. But suddenly, it has become a crisis again. Or has it become a convenient excuse for doing what a lot of them have wanted to do for a long time: cut Medicare and Social Security benefits?.As you might imagine, the Congressional schedule has been totally rearranged. They had scheduled recesses for the national party conventions, their usual August recess, and then for the elections. We assume those are all up-in-the-air now..The switch to the chained CPI was seriously considered in the closed-door debt limit meetings by Congressional leaders and President Obama earlier this summer. It forms the basis of not just one, but several, of the most prominent debt reduction plans currently under debate. Chaining the CPI has won support from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, and most deficit reduction proposals call for putting it into effect relatively soon.."At the time of enactment, The Congressional Quarterly referred to this revenue change as 'taxing the benefits of high-income recipients'" says Johnson, citing the publication's summaries of major Social Security changes from 1983-198Social Security's archives state that "Congress intended that the taxation of benefits should not affect 'lower income' individuals." The revenues from the tax on Social Security benefits are credited to the Social Security and Medicare trust funds and provide a growing share of the programs' financing..Support Grows for Key Bills.Chamber of Commerce or area community college to learn about programs that can.TSCL enthusiastically supports H.R. 2575, H.R. 1205, and H.R. 242, and we were pleased to see support grow for each one this week. For more information about these and other bills, visit the Bill Tracking section of our website.