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Under growing pressure to reduce the federal debt, Congress is considering a new Medicare proposal that would shift the risk of rising costs that outpace spending targets set by the government to seniors and the disabled. The proposal comes from a key recommendation of President Obama's Fiscal Commission..With my first bill, the Save Social Security Act, we are keeping our promise to our seniors and strengthening Social Security. This legislation eliminates the Social Security tax break for people making over 0,000 a year, while maintaining it for income earned from the current cap of 7,200 up to 0,000. This is a fairer way to extend the life of the program. In fact, the Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration found that my legislation would extend the program's solvency for another 30 years, keeping it on firm financial footing through 206At that point, it would also close 2/3 of the remaining gap, allowing Social Security to still pay 90 percent of benefits..Medical costs are a big expense in retirement that many retirees tend to underestimate. But healthcare isn't always the biggest item. Housing takes the biggest chunk of the household budget in retirement. Here are five of the biggest housing expenses to whittle down in 2014:.Increase the payroll taxable maximum to cover all earnings. Currently high - income workers pay no Social Security taxes on earnings over 8,500. That means someone earning 0,000 stopped paying Social Security taxes at the end of March while middle and low - income earners continue to pay Social Security taxes on all their earnings, all year long. This one change alone would bolster both the disability and retirement program for decades to come..While that is certainly better than 2010 and 2011 when inflation was so low that no COLA was paid for two years in a row, it's unlikely to cover seniors' real cost increases. Earlier this year we surveyed our readers and 89% reported that the 1.7% COLA in 2013 increased benefits by less than per month. On the other hand, almost the same number, 88%, reported that their total monthly expenses rose by more than Unfortunately the majority of those people, 40%, said that their monthly costs rose by more than 9..The Senior Citizens League supports proposals that strengthens Medicare for dental, vision and audio services, and cuts prescription drug costs by allowing Medicare to negotiate prices. To learn more visit:..They wrote: "We have worked together on bipartisan legislation that would address skyrocketing prescription drug prices … While we pursue these legislative efforts in Congress, we strongly encourage you to take executive or administrative action to reduce the ever-increasing financial burden of prescription drugs for millions of Americans.".Top 10 Fastest Growing Costs of Older Americans Since 2000.Finally, some Good News