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Super Committee Fails, Budget Faces Automatic Cuts.It is unfair and unjust to expect American seniors to settle for a COLA that is less than what they have spent their entire lives working for, especially when America's seniors have to account for new expenses to keep them safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is why it is critical to base COLAs on an index that reflects what seniors actually spend their money on. It is time for Congress to take action and give our nation's seniors what they deserve..I get my Medicare health plan under my wife's company insurance. My wife is not on Medicare yet, she also gets her health insurance through her former employer. We are both retired and live on a fixed income. When does she need to enroll in Medicare?.About 4 million people who turn age 61 this year are in for a deep hit to their Social Security benefits when they retire. The initial retirement benefits of these individuals may be permanently reduced by about 9.1%, according to an estimate by Social Security's Chief Actuary. Without quick remedial action from Congress, the retirement benefits of people born in 1960 would be lower than the benefits of people with identical earnings and retirement histories who were born just one year prior to them. This is due to a flaw in the Social Security benefit formula..House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said last week that she is pushing to attach drug price cutting legislation to the major budget bill carrying most of President Biden's trillion economic agenda in the coming months..On Monday, the Trustees of the Social Security and Medicare programs released their annual reports on the current and projected financial status of the two programs. As expected, the Trustees found that both programs currently face significant but manageable financial challenges..Dealerships and lenders that use these tactics often target older consumers, low-income people with credit problems, and people with low "financial I.Q.s" by taking advantage of the borrower's lack of understanding about loans, terms and finances in general. The lender makes money from charging excessively high interest rates and stacking terms in its favor, and from the profits when the vehicle is repossessed and resold, sometimes to multiple buyers..In addition, since 1992 there has been a significant change to the government's bottom line. For the government fiscal year ending September 30, 2000, the Congressional Budget Office reported a surplus of 6 billion- billion of which comes from non Social Security revenues. The CBO estimates the 10-year non-Social Security surplus to be about .1 trillion..Nonetheless, this weekend the President said he will carry out his threat and veto the bill. It is not clear if all Republican members of Congress who voted for the bill will do so again and override Trump but there were large enough majorities in both houses that they could lose a few votes and still override.

Number Of People Getting Monoclonal Antibody Treatment For Covid19 Skyrockets

Since the start of the first CPI in 1940, the BLS has made changes to how it calculates price inflation - most recently announcing changes to how they collect price data. A new paper reports that the BLS has undertaken several pilot projects in an attempt to supplement and/or replace its traditional field collection of price data with "alternative sources." If that sounds suspicious, you have good reason to ask questions. The BLS Handbook of Methods lists more than 21 changes that economists have made to how they calculate the CPI since 198In most cases the so-called "improvements" tend to slow the measured rate of inflation. That means the growth in COLAs is cut and Social Security benefits grow more slowly over time. In short, this boils down to an erosion in the buying power of your Social Security benefits when, in reality, prices are actually going up..Although Social Security recipients didn't receive an annual cost of living adjustment this year, many are reporting that their costs are rising, and household budgets are getting squeezed, says The Senior Citizens League. Donna C. of New York, recently wrote to TSCL saying, "No inflation? Are you serious? What about the price of electricity, food, drugs, local taxes? All, going up. We can barely survive now, and you say there's no inflation? Who figures this stuff out and who decides?" she asks..The big difference between the CPI-W used to calculate your COLA, and the CPI-E, is the weight or portion of income that the Bureau of Labor Statistics gives to each category. While seniors occasionally benefit from the heavier weighting of transportation costs and food costs under the CPI-W when food and gasoline prices spike, in the majority of years they fall behind due to the lower weighting of medical care. … Continued

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The 12-member bi-partisan panel failed to compromise after a nearly three-month effort. Ultimately, the committee couldn't come to terms with a common ideology of taxation and spending by the November 23rd deadline. "Despite our inability to bridge the committee's significant differences, we end this process united in our belief that the nation's fiscal crisis must be addressed and that we cannot leave it for the next generation to solve," Senator Patty Murray and Representative Jeb Hensarling acknowledged in a joint written statement..A newly approved drug to slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease is drawing criticism for it's ,000 price tag, especially given its lack of proven effectiveness. Aduhelm stirred controversy when the Food and Drug Administration's own expert advisory panel was nearly unanimous in opposing the drug's approval due to mixed results in studies of effectiveness..Once the Social Security reform trigger has been pulled, the House budget resolution stipulates that the Trustees would have until September 30th of the same calendar year to submit recommendations for the changes necessary to achieve a positive 75-year balance to the President. The resolution would then require the President to submit legislation to Congress within 60 days of receiving the Trustees' recommendations. President Trump promised repeatedly on the campaign trail not to touch Social Security. … Continued