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Many in Congress talk about the need to "strengthen Social Security," but few offer proposals that would both improve program financing and at the same time improve retirement income. We encourage you to attend town halls this summer and to tell your Members of Congress that Social Security's solvency doesn't require benefit cuts. What Social Security needs is greater tax fairness and requiring all to pay their fair share..By Representative Rodney Davis.Your friend should be commended for being sharp and perceptive enough to anticipate her own needs. All too often discussions about changes in one's housing and assisted living occur during a health crisis. But because your friend lives alone, she needs someone like you to talk about the "red flags" that you both may start to notice, and she may need help working up plans for the next life phase..While some view Social Security's retirement program as relatively easy to reform, Social Security's disability program is a very complex operation which has been notoriously difficult to change. Past efforts to reform the disability program have led to vast administrative difficulties as well as public outcries. On the other hand, the retirement program's reform efforts have faced fewer administrative difficulties. Part of the problem is determining what constitutes a disability. For that reason, and others, reform of the retirement program is discussed on Capitol Hill more often, while reform of the disability program seems to fly under the radar..You should know that there are some groups who call themselves senior groups but are funded mostly by the drug makers and other corporate interests. Whereas TSCL is beholden only to you, those groups dare not oppose the corporations that fund them, whether it is in the interests of seniors or not..When it comes to strengthening Social Security's finances, Members of Congress only have two choices - to cut spending on benefits, or increase program revenues. Typically in the past, the focus has been on proposals that would cut benefits rather than raising revenues. Proponents of cuts argue that benefits must be cut because Social Security is insolvent as currently structured. They point to the fact that there are fewer workers to provide payroll tax revenues for swelling number of retirees..Based on the result of this poll, The Senior Citizens League has endorsed legislation called the Seniors Have Eyes, Ears, and Teeth Act, a bill introduced by Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard and 131 cosponsors in the House of Representatives. If adopted, H.R. 508 would expand Medicare coverage to include essential hearing, vision, and dental services..These settlements are only a good deal for the drug manufacturers involved brand name and generic. They are a flat-out bad deal for patients. Pay-for-delay deals make necessary prescriptions unaffordable for many seniors and their families..Finally, Rep. Rodney Davis's Social Security Fairness Act gained eight new cosponsors this week, bringing the total up to forty-six. They are: Reps. John Tierney, Joe Courtney, Julia Brownley, Aaron Schock, Peter Welch, James McGovern, Lois Capps, and Elijah Cummings. If signed into law, H.R. 1795 would repeal the Government Pension Offset and the Windfall Elimination Provision two provisions that unfairly reduce the earned Social Security benefits of millions of teachers, firefighters, peace officers, and other state or local government employees each year.