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By U.S. Representative Abigail Spanberger.Questions To Ask Your Member Of Congress At Your Next Town Hall.This week, Members of Congress continued working on a .1 trillion spending bill to fund the federal government past December 11th. Lawmakers in the Senate passed a five-day continuing resolution on Thursday afternoon to buy more time for the negotiations. At the time of writing this week's update, those in the House had not yet passed the stopgap funding bill, but they are expected to overwhelmingly vote in its favor before midnight on December 11th, and President Obama has already said he will sign the short-term fix into law..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..What you propose is an interesting concept. It would be possible to design such cost of living adjustment option in several different ways. For example, the COLA could be calculated based on the national average retiree benefit in the current year. This amount could be adjusted using the current method the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, or the use of a seniors' consumer price index such as the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly. The law could even add a provision that the COLA would never be lower than a certain amount - such as 3%..The rapid growth in Medicare Part B costs is consuming an increasing share of beneficiaries' income. What proposals do you support to slow the growth in the out-of-pocket costs?.Again, thank you for participating in the legislative process by signing the petition. It is my hope that you will continue to keep me apprised of your interest in issues important to you as my colleagues and I continue our work during this 113th Congress.Reducing wait times. Inadequate funding and a growing hearing backlog have resulted in many DI applicants waiting longer than 600 days to be approved for the program. That's longer than some of them will live. All applicants deserve decisions on their benefit eligibility in a timely manner, and wait times of two years are simply unacceptable..To help your brother, you may need to get qualified legal advice. Lending and consumer protection laws vary by state. Here are six common signs of predatory lending:

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TSCL believes that the Medicare prescription drug benefit law is flawed, and will be carefully monitoring the effects of both the short-term Medicare drug cards, and the Medicare Drug Benefit plan in Medicare Part D as it traverses through the donut hole for many seniors. TSCL considers it necessary to compile feedback on the measure of success or failure of the program and its donut hole phase..But our fight to protect seniors doesn't stop there. My bill also ends the nonsensical practice of "double taxation" on Social Security benefits for middle class seniors. Currently, many seniors pay taxes when they receive their Social Security benefits, even though they were taxed to create those benefits throughout their working lives. That's wrong! Providing a tax cut to middle class seniors while increasing the sustainability of Social Security is something everyone in Congress can and should agree on..That subject is the coronavirus flu. We wrote a little about it last week, but we still have questions and concerns and we think you probably do, also. Let's start by pointing out the following: even the world's top infectious-disease specialists still aren't sure how lethal a threat the coronavirus presents. … Continued

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Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agreed at Wednesday's hearing that displaying the full Social Security number on Medicare cards puts seniors at risk for identity theft. However, the process of removing the numbers is costly and complex. Tony Trenkle, Director for the CMS Office of Information Services stated, "It's going to be a massive undertaking if we go down this road." He explained that the process would require a technology system update and massive education efforts for beneficiaries, providers, and business associates..If you do return to work, it is possible that your earnings could subject a portion of your Social Security benefits to taxation. If this happens, you could wind up with only a small gain, or even lose money after paying the increased tax on earnings and Social Security benefits. Before taking on work to earn extra income, calculate the tax cost. A good tax guide like J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax contains worksheets to help you do this. Tax guides can often be found in many public libraries, or visit for more information..To learn how much COLA cuts would cost you, try TSCL's Chained COLA calculator. … Continued