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Alexandria, VMore than 90 percent of older Americans are likely to be making a secret Christmas wish for the New Year, says The Senior Citizens League. "That's to make ends meet," says TSCL Chairman, Ed Cates. A national survey conducted by TSCL earlier this year found that 98 percent of Social Security recipients participating reported the annual cost-of-living adjustment had increased their Social Security benefits by less than a month in 2014, but 92 percent said their monthly expenses had increased by more than "That disparity between COLAs and rising costs is the 'Grinch that's stealing Christmas' for millions of older Americans this year," Cates says..For progress updates or for more information about these and other bills that would strengthen Social Security and Medicare programs, visit the our website at, follow TSCL on Twitter or Facebook..In 2016, seniors who depend on Social Security to make ends meet received no annual cost of living increase. Social Security is supposed to be indexed to inflation so that when prices go up, benefits go up too. But Congress's formula isn't geared to what older Americans actually spend. So even though the cost of core goods and services has gone up, seniors who are already struggling to scrape by to cover rent and exploding prescription drug prices, are scrambling..Medicare has been subject to automatic 2 percent spending cuts since 2014, enacted as a provision of the Budget Control Act of 201Providers continue to bill Medicare in the normal way, but they are only paid 98 cents on the dollar. According to a FAQ from the House Committee on the Budget, the Medicare spending cut for the government's fiscal year 2021 which starts October 1, 2020, will reduce spending by .2 billion..Low-Income Health Programs, Working and Laid Off Workers Take the Biggest Hit When Medicare Part B Premiums Spike.Even the Committee For a Responsible Federal Budget, which proposes the change, suggests that lower-income people could be especially vulnerable under the proposal. The organization is recommending that Congress dedicate about billion in savings from lower spending on COLAs to "enhance various benefits for low-income individuals" saying "while chained CPI is the most accurate measure of inflation, it could result in some undesirable distributional consequences.".During the August break an old and ugly threat to Social Security and Medicare surfaced once again. The Congressional Budget Office released its forecast of future federal government deficits. It said that deficits are expected to climb to over trillion in fiscal year2020, which begins this October And they will keep going up in the years after that..The change looks so small. I've read that it would cut benefits just.03 of a percentage point..The more you learn about the COLA, however, the more the anemic annual boosts of our past decade raise questions. The very first COLA ever paid was 77%. No, you read that right, this is not a typo. It became payable in 1950, one year before I was born, and a full ten years after Ida May Fuller received the nation's very first Social Security benefit check for .54 - the equivalent of 0.90 today.