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Unrealistic Cost-of-Living-Adjustments : COLAs are already inadequate: Seniors have lost almost one-third of their buying power since 2000, according to a recent TSCL study. In that period, COLAs increased just 31 percent, while typical senior expenses jumped 73 percent, more than twice as fast. There is talk of using a "chained" CPI to calculate COLAs. But the spending patterns assumed by the "chained" CPI don't apply as well to seniors, who spend a larger percentage of their income on necessities that aren't as conducive to substitution. Billed as a mere "technical correction," a TSCL analysis shows that using a "chained" CPI to calculate COLAs would in fact slash payments by more than ,000 over a 25-year retirement. Read more here and here..In touting the Executive Actions, President Obama said that the actions would require undocumented immigrants eligible for relief to start paying "their fair share of taxes" in exchange for permission to work in the U.S. But TSCL believes that the Administration is overestimating what the government would receive in new tax revenues, because many illegal immigrants already pay into the system..If signed into law, S. 1904 would strengthen Social Security benefits by enacting an across-the-board benefit increase, adopting the Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers, increasing the minimum Social Security benefit to 125 percent of the poverty line, and increasing the threshold on the taxation of Social Security benefits. It would also strengthen the solvency of the trust funds by applying the payroll tax to income over 0,000, increasing the payroll tax rate by 0.05 percent annually until it reaches 7.65 percent, and reallocating funds to the Disability Insurance trust fund..In addition, one new cosponsor Rep. Marcy Kaptur signed on to Rep. Peter DeFazio's No Loopholes in Social Security Taxes Act, bringing the total to twenty-eight. Rep. DeFazio's bill would subject all income over 0,000 to the Social Security payroll tax, reportedly adding another fifty years to the solvency of the Trust Fund. Currently, the payroll tax is capped at 3,700, and no income over that amount is taxed..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..What do you think of options to fix the pending insolvency of Social Security's disability program? Take a poll. Visit TSCL's website at..2009 Annual Medicare Trustees Report, May 12, 200"How Medicare Part B Premiums Would Be Affected If There Is No Social Security COLA," Kathleen Romig, Jim Hahn, Congressional Research Service, May 4, 2009 7-5700..We look forward to working with Sen. Casey and Rep. Cartwright in the coming months to help build support for this important bill. In addition, we urge our members and supporters to contact their elected officials to request their support for it. For contact information, CLICK HERE..Many of you will no doubt remember that we used to celebrate both Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays separately. In 1968 Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Bill, which moved several federal holidays to Mondays.