The disconnect between many in Congress and average Americans on Social Security and Medicare is certainly nothing new.
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For years now, Wall Street funded fiscal hawk groups have been promising fiscal Armageddon unless Congress immediately cut benefits to middle-class seniors and their families. Contrary to that billionaire-financed bluster, the truth is there are clearly ways to see savings in Medicare through lower health care costs, not just by slashing benefits..
Unfortunately, seniors will still receive no cost of living adjustment in 2016 and the sequester cuts to Medicare providers will continue to pay for non-Medicare programs. It’s clear the GOP-led Congress still sees Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid as piggy banks to fund other legislative priorities and this hostage-taking, threats to benefits and crisis creation will continue.
Harwood: Retirement age?
Stivers: We need to come together. I think we need to say, “You give a little, we give a little,” and figure out how to sustain Medicare and Social Security into the future. The other thing on Medicare is we have to bend the cost curve on health care.
via CNBC.
Related Reading:
We have been keeping track of Members of Congress’ statements on wanting to cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and health care in 2018.
You can find the whole project by clicking here.

Three pieces of legislation have been introduced in the 116th Congress that would implement the CPI-E for calculating Social Security COLAs: Social Security 2100 Act, Social Security Expansion Act, and CPI-E Act.
National Committee grassroots activists were on Capitol Hill today to deliver 2 million signatures to the Senate urging Congress to reject ongoing efforts to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits. Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) received the petitions and vowed to continue leading the fight to protect these vital programs.
via Entitled to Know.
Do older Americans want bigger Social Security checks and expanded Medicare coverage – or do they want their benefits cut?
That is the fundamental question for seniors and their families with less than two weeks until the mid-term elections. The majority party in Congress has proposed time and again to slash Social Security and Medicare benefits under the guise of ‘entitlement reform.’ Leader Mitch McConnell just attributed the swelling federal debt to retirees’ earned benefits – when the real culprit was the 2017 tax package that mainly benefited the wealthy and big corporations.
The majority party’s 2018 and 2019 budgets would have taken a $500 billion bite out of Medicare and $64 billion from Social Security. And make no mistake – conservative tropes like raising the eligibility age, imposing a more meager inflation formula, and means testing are benefit cuts.
Read more from our op-ed by clicking here.
The 116th Congress is right around the corner. Our FREE newsletter will keep you updated on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and health care news happening around Capitol Hill. You can sign up by visiting: http://bit.ly/2Gf5D6w
The 114th Congress will see many new faces after the 2014 midterms; however, the face of our nation’s middle class remains largely unchanged - they’re poorer, more diverse, getting older and facing a retirement crisis which threatens millions.
Read more by clicking here or the graphic above.
Cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is extremely unpopular, even among Republicans. These programs are sacrosanct to most Democratic members of Congress.

Seniors went to Capitol Hill earlier this month to tell Congress why their current #SocialSecurity benefits are inadequate. Boost Social Security Now! https://www.ncpssm.org/campaigns/boost-social-security-now/ @RepJohnLarson



