The spending bill now moves to the Senate, where its future is uncertain. Leaders are not sure that they will have the votes needed to pass the bill in its current form, and many are predicting that the President will end up signing a "clean" spending bill into law at the end of February.."The bottom line is that Medicare Part B premiums rise several times faster than COLAs, and those premiums are now high enough to cause the net Social Security benefits of millions of people to remain flat for years at a time," Johnson says. "We are at the point where this is affecting far more people than anyone ever anticipated, and it's a red flag that Medicare premiums are increasing too fast, while Social Security benefits are not adequately keeping pace," she explains..Our annual Senior Surveys indicate overwhelming public support for the major provisions of The Social Security 2100 Act. And based on your comments and email, that's pretty much the case, no matter which political party you happen to vote for. It's vital for all of us to make sure your Member of Congress knows how you think Social Security and Medicare should be "rescued." Please take our 2020 Senior Survey..TSCL enthusiastically supports H.R. 3118 and H.R. 1179, and we were pleased to see support grow for both of them this week..Currently the SSA uses all earnings to determine entitlement to benefits, including the earnings for jobs worked illegally. The majority of seniors responding to TSCL surveys on the topic believe that noncitizens should not be allowed to receive Social Security based on illegal work. TSCL agrees. Social Security benefits are determined on earnings and work history, regardless of whether taxes were paid or not. Because those earnings are held by Social Security in an Earnings Suspense file, non-citizens could at some point gain access to benefits based on illegal earnings. TSCL strongly supports legislation that would ban the payment of Social Security based on unauthorized work..On Monday, the CBO released its highly anticipated analysis of the BCRA health reform legislation released late last week by Republican leaders in the Senate. The report shows that if signed into law, the bill would leave 22 million more individuals uninsured than current law, and it would hit older, poorer people the hardest especially those between the ages of fifty and sixty-four with less than ,200 in annual income. Those individuals would see health insurance premium increases of 200 percent or more under the BCRA..The statement that "nearly two-thirds of undocumented immigrants affected by the president's executive action don't pay taxes today" doesn't appear to be supported by the government's own data, and is contradicted by statements from Social Security's own Chief Actuary Stephen Goss. Goss was quoted in The New York Times as saying that about "three-quarters of other-than-legal immigrants" already pay payroll taxes. And the Social Security Administration receives on average about 9 million copies of suspicious wage and payroll tax reports a year in which the Social Security number and name don't match those on Social Security records. This situation frequently occurs when undocumented immigrants illegally work under invalid or fraudulent Social Security numbers. But if that's the case, awarding work authorization and Social Security numbers now would make up to 5 million individuals eligible to claim permanent Social Security and Medicare benefits based on earnings under those illegitimate wage reports..It remains to be seen whether a deal will be reached before the December deadline Congressional Quarterly reports that the prospects for an agreement are "dimming." Discussions will likely continue behind closed doors over the upcoming weeks, and TSCL will continue to monitor the negotiations. Check back for updates every Friday..Seniors have lost more than 20% of their purchasing power since 2000. What is your position on the adoption of the "chained" CPI for the calculation of COLAs, which studies show would put the purchasing power of Social Security benefits even further behind?
