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Most seniors are aware of the impact of the consumer price index on COLAs. But switching to the more slowly growing "chained" CPI, if applied government-wide, would be far more reaching than Social Security cuts alone. In every aspect where applied, seniors would receive less in benefits and pay more in higher taxes. The following chart illustrates:.AHCA Advances Through House.A third option was introduced by Senator Rand Paul in June. His plan would repeal the SGR and base payments on the same formula that is used to calculate cost-of-living adjustments for Social Security benefits. It would cap annual pay increases for providers at three percent, allowing physicians to practice without the threat of annual reimbursement cuts..Under current law noncitizens can file a claim for Social Security benefits if other qualifications are met. Currently Social Security counts all earnings toward Social Security entitlement, even for jobs worked while illegally present in the United States. Do you think any change is needed to this policy and if so what do you propose?.In normal political times neither party would allow Medicare to be cut. But because of our current highly partisan times, it would require ten Republicans to join with Democrats to stop the cuts to Medicare with new legislation if reconciliation were used..The tax cut, which reduced the Social Security payroll tax for employees from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent, makes the Social Security trust funds reliant on general revenues and undermines the self-funding nature of the program. Social Security is funded by payroll taxes, and currently faces a billion cash-flow deficit. Extending the tax cut could exacerbate the program's funding issues..Then, I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do..Another major hurdle was about how to classify .5 billion in veterans' health spending through the VA Mission Act - legislation that Trump himself has championed. The chairmen/women of the Congressional committees that deal with government funding originally agreed to classify that money as "emergency spending" because then it would not violate the overall spending limits Congress has previously agreed to..I have been investigating the skyrocketing prices of prescription drugs for some time. During my investigation, I have been contacted by a huge range of people - patients, doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare providers - all warning about massive price increases of certain medications. They gave me example, after example, of drug prices that have been jacked up repeatedly - with no apparent justification, and with no evident link to any increases in the costs of manufacturing these drugs.