Also this week, one new cosponsor Rep. Lou Barletta signed on to Rep. John Duncan's CPI for Seniors Act. The cosponsor total for this bill is now at 11..Congress Should Work Together to Strengthen Social Security.than via an ambulance gurney. Starting this year, Medicare covers a yearly.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..This week, lawmakers in the Senate voted to approve a permanent repeal of Medicare's flawed sustainable growth rate formula, and The Senior Citizens League announced its support for one new piece of legislation..By Representative Rodney Davis.TSCL understands that the budget deficit is growing out of hand. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the massive tax reform and budget bills recently adopted by Congress will cost the federal government an estimated .7 trillion over the next ten years. However, TSCL firmly believes that a constitutional balanced budget amendment, that would disproportionately impact seniors and limit the ability of Congress to respond to economic downturns, is not the solution to the problem..In 2012, the GPO reduced the Social Security benefits of nearly 600,000 surviving spouses, who also collect a government pensions, by nearly two-thirds. Nine out of 10 public employees affected by the GPO lost their entire spousal benefit, even though their spouse paid Social Security taxes..This approach is unacceptable to me and reflects the wrong values and priorities. I'll never forget the elderly woman from Galesburg, Illinois who came up to me on the campaign trail last year to tell me how important Medicare is to her well-being. She pleaded with me to fight to protect Medicare because she couldn't afford even an extra in out-of-pocket costs for her healthcare, let alone the additional ,400 the Ryan Budget could put her back.
