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If adopted, H.R. 860 would strengthen and reform the Social Security program by providing beneficiaries with a 2 percent benefit boost, basing cost-of-living adjustments on the CPI-E, creating a new minimum benefit set at 125 percent of the poverty line, and cutting taxes for beneficiaries. It would also apply the payroll tax to income over 0,000 and gradually increase the payroll tax rate to 7.4 percent..ReConsumer's Union has a brochure to explain how it works..Changes are looming for Medicare and Social Security. Make your opinion count. Visit TSCL online at and take our monthly poll!.Now a leading budget policy organization is pushing Congress to fully offset the cost of building the wall and other new spending and tax cuts with entitlement cuts - specifically, adopting the more slowly-growing Chained Consumer Price Index to calculate annual Cost of Living Adjustments. That's a change that would cut federal spending by about 0 billion, the group estimates..Finally, the Protecting and Preserving Social Security Act gained one new cosponsor in Senator Claire McCaskill, who brings the new cosponsor total to three. If signed into law, S. 1600 would base the Social Security COLA on the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly. The bill would also ensure that high income earners pay their fair share of taxes into Social Security..As always, TSCL will be working with members of Congress to ensure that the legislation we have been fighting for on behalf of TSCL supporters is introduced and then passed into law..The SSA and the AARP say, however, the Notch affects only those born during the five-year period of 1917 through 192Those born during that period were covered by a special transitional benefit formula, the purpose of which was to provide a 5-year phase-in for the new 1977 benefit formula..Simply setting government spending limits and putting seniors at greater risk for rising costs does nothing to slow rising healthcare costs. TSCL is sharing the results of our recent 2011 Advisor Senior Survey on healthcare costs and the inadequacy of COLAs to cover rising costs in our visits with Members of Congress. We encourage you to contact your Members of Congress and describe your Medicare and other out-of-pocket costs and what portion of your Social Security payments is required to cover them. Use examples of recent cost increases and let them know your concerns about keeping Medicare affordable!.The largest percentage of those surveyed in TSCL's 2017 Senior Survey - 37 percent - reported that their household expenses rose by more than 9 per month in 2016, yet the annual cost of living adjustment increased benefits by only 0.3 percent, about .00- .00 per month for someone with average benefits. Few beneficiaries actually saw an increase in benefits at all, however, because rising Medicare Part B premiums took the entire COLA. "This flat growth in Social Security forces tens of millions of retirees and their families to spend more out of savings every year, go into debt, or look to Medicaid and other safety net programs to make ends meet," Johnson says.