The continuing resolution will give appropriators in the House and Senate five extra days until Wednesday, December 16th to work out the final details of the omnibus. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn told reporters on Thursday, "There are a few outstanding issues that have not yet been resolved." However, he said he's hopeful that the omnibus will be filed on Monday after a weekend of negotiations..That's a common misconception. According to estimates from the Social Security Administration's Chief Actuary, three-quarters of "other-than-legal" immigrants have payroll taxes withheld..The difference in drug prices between the two programs is due to two reasons. Under Medicare Part D, the government isn't negotiating drug costs on behalf of beneficiaries, and Part D has no cap on out-of-pocket spending for prescription drugs. The lack of a cap acts as a perverse incentive for drug makers and drug plans to get beneficiaries to use the most expensive drugs, because Medicare reimburses drug plans 80% of the cost in the final catastrophic phase of coverage. The higher the cost of the drug, the more drug plans receive from Medicare. Medicare patients who rely on such medications could owe thousands of dollars out-of-pocket every year for a single drug, even when their Part D plan covers the drug..One of the big questions we have is why this flu is so different from the regular seasonal flu, or even the flu viruses we've experienced in the past years such as swine flu, SARS, MERS or Ebola. After all, whether we like it or not, it's a fact that seniors are among the most vulnerable when it comes to theses flus, especially if someone has other serious underlying illnesses. It's also a fact that significant numbers of people die each time there is a flu outbreak, and seniors make up a large portion of those deaths..TSCL supports a special provision of the Senate bill introduced by Senators Orrin Hatch and Marco Rubio. The provision would ban earnings from jobs worked illegally from being used to determine entitlement to Social Security benefits and for calculating the amount of initial benefits legislation that TSCL and TSCL's grassroots members have long supported. But the Senate bill does not close a related loophole in current law that allows older immigrants who received "non-work" Social Security numbers issued prior to 2004 to claim Social Security benefits without having ever received work authorization..TSCL believes this would make no sense. It would rewards people for breaking our workplace laws at the same time Congress is considering major changes that would reduce benefits of those who paid into the system legally. TSCL supports legislation that would ban earnings made while in the U.S. illegally, from being counted toward entitlement to Social Security, including H.R. 787 the "No Social Security for Illegal Immigrants Act," introduced by Representative Dana Rohrabacher, and S. 95 introduced by Senator David Vitter.."Extra Help Basics," Medicare Interactive, The Medicare Rights Center, accessed on June 19, 2018..However, a modification to the bill is under consideration that would provide a portion of the income taxes collected on Social Security benefits to the Medicare Trust Fund in the same manner and amount as current law. That modification, however, would have a big impact on Social Security's cash flow in the earlier years. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, the change would lower the total amount of revenues going into the Social Security Trust Fund by 1 billion over the 2020-2029 period, and would not prevent Social Security from becoming insolvent by 2036..TSCL enthusiastically supports H.R. 1030, H.R. 1795, and H.R. 1179, and we were pleased to see support grow for each one this week.
