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(CNN)The federal government announced a large hike in Medicare premiums Friday night, blaming the pandemic but also what it called uncertainty over how much it may have to be forced to pay for a pricey and controversial new Alzheimer's drug. The 14.5% increase in Part B premiums will take monthly payments for those in the lowest income bracket from $148.50 a month this year to $170.10 in 2022. Medicare Part B covers physician services, outpatient hospital services, certain home health services, medical equipment, and certain other medical and health services not covered by Medicare Part A, including medications given in...

Key PointsSocial Security provides a periodic cost of living adjustment.Seniors will see their benefits increase by 5.9% in 2022.The rising costs of five necessities could mean the COLA may not provide much extra buying power.Social Security benefit checks will be much larger next year for retirees. Seniors receiving retirement benefits are entitled to annual cost of living adjustments (COLAs) to help maintain their buying power. The 2022 COLA will provide older Americans with a 5.9% benefit increase.While this may seem like a lot of extra money, the sad reality is that rising prices in some key areas are likely to...

Although Social Security has been around for a long time, the program continues to evolve. And one positive change that has the potential to arise in the near term is a generous cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA. COLAs are the annual raises seniors on Social Security are entitled to. They're not guaranteed, and there have been years when seniors have gotten no boost to their benefits at all. A nice windfall could be on the way In recent years, Social Security's COLAs haven't been much to write home about. In 2021, seniors saw their benefits increase by 1.3%. In 2020, they...

Social Security and Medicare, the government's two biggest benefit programs, remain under intense financial pressure with the retirement of millions of baby boomers and a devastating pandemic. Social Security will be unable to pay full benefits starting in 2034, a year earlier than previously forecast, due to impact of the crisis.

Wicked glee from Bill Gates to deny retired people their Social Security unless they get vaccinated. https://twitter.com/NewsAlternative/status/1423164308167352320

U.S. states putting an early end to federal unemployment benefits saw a larger jump in local labor supply in June than those planning to maintain the $300 weekly supplement until early September, new data show, though there was no clear sign it had led to significantly more hiring. State-level jobs data released earlier this month show that in the 26 states stopping benefits early an additional 174,000 people joined the labor force in June, by either taking jobs or beginning work searches, compared to 47,000 in the other states. Citing workforce shortages, those 26 states terminated early at least one...

Most conservatives recognize the federal government faces enormous fiscal problems—both a large overhang of debt from spending in years past, and sizable deficits forecast for the years to come. But what to do about it?While spending on things like earmarks and Congress’s failure to right-size spending when passing tax relief have worsened our fiscal woes, at bottom the United States’ financial shortfalls stem from unsustainable entitlements: Obamacare, Medicaid, Social Security, and Medicare. These programs comprise a large, and growing, share of the federal budget, particularly as the Baby Boom generation retires.In the immediate future, President Joe Biden and his Democrat...

Democrats want to use stimulus money to make you into the people populating Disney's cartoon 'Wall-E.' Instead, turn it into a weapon for antifragility.Democrats’ fifth round of “coronavirus” “stimulus” will soon hand another $1,400 in government debt, plus interest, to every American man, woman, and child in 90 percent of U.S. households. It’s clear this is yet another round of hush money meant to keep Americans quiet and distracted while Democrats restructure the United States into a larger version of their failed uniparty state, California.While COVID times have been obviously worse than the four years of prosperity and freedom under...

There’s no question the Social Security retirement trust fund will run out of money, and the current recession will make that happen faster than previously forecast. The key questions now are: When will the trust fund be exhausted? How (and when) will Congress respond? How can individuals protect their retirement security?The 2020 annual report from the trustees of Social Security was issued last April and estimated the retirement trust fund would be depleted and unable to help pay benefits in 2034.That report was based on data through the end of 2019 and didn’t anticipate the sudden and severe recession caused...

@thehill Rep.-elect Jamaal Bowman: "We need to bring H.R. 40 to the floor for a vote. We need reparations for the African American community. We need a federal jobs guarantee. We need Medicare for all."

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump Covid Relief Negotiations are moving along. Go Big! 8:48 AM · Oct 9, 2020·Twitter for iPhone 20K Retweets 2.2K Quote Tweets 112.2K Likes MatthewJshow @MatthewJshow · 4h Replying to @realDonaldTrump GREATEST PRESIDENT EVER!

The $3 trillion coronavirus aid package Democrats introduced Tuesday calls for the Treasury to make payments of up to $10,000 per student loan. The proposal, which Democrats plan to vote on Friday, calls for Treasury to make student loan payments until September 2021. Any unused portion of the $10,000 would be applied to the outstanding loan balance if it’s not reached by the 2021 deadline. Senate Democrats earlier this year proposed the cancellation of student loan payments during the coronavirus pandemic in addition to wiping out at least $10,000 in student loan debt.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Monday the Trump administration is prepared to back additional stimulus money to blunt the economic pain of the coronavirus pandemic if necessary. "If we need to put more money out to support American business and American workers, the president is absolutely prepared to do that," Mnuchin told FOX Business' Maria Bartiromo on Monday.

WASHINGTON - The financial conditions of the government’s two biggest benefits programs remain shaky, with Medicare projected to become insolvent in six years and Social Security on track to no longer be able to pay full benefits starting in 2035. And that’s without accounting for the impact of the coronavirus, which is sure to impose further pressure on the two programs. For Social Security, the projected 2035 date for exhausting the trust fund reserves means that it would be able to pay only 79% of benefits at that time. The projected timetables, which remained unchanged from last year’s estimates, were...

Most Social Security recipients will be paid automatically, but there are some big exceptions. The U.S. Treasury Department recently announced that Social Security beneficiaries who aren't typically required to file a tax return won't need to take any special action to get a $1,200 stimulus payment. Because of this, most Social Security beneficiaries don't have to take any special action -- the payment will be automatically paid in the same manner as their Social Security benefits. On the other hand, there are some Social Security recipients who may still need to take action, especially if they want to maximize the...

The Department of Agriculture will implement a new $19 billion COVID-19 coronavirus relief plan for food producers that includes direct payments to farmers, as announced by President Trump during the White House briefing on Friday.

Prior to the economic downturn—or collapse—that we’re now experiencing, the trust fund was projected to run out of money by 2035. This has, practically overnight, gotten worse. Why? Because some 16 million Americans have lost their jobs in the last three weeks. This means there are a lot fewer—millions fewer—people paying those payroll taxes into the Social Security system. And on top of a lot less money coming in, a lot more will soon be going out. That’s because people who are now out of work and eligible to draw benefits may soon do so, out of sheer economic need....

House Democrats introduced legislation Friday that would allow illegal immigrants to receive money from the coronavirus relief package. . . . Several Democrats have expressed dismay that the initial coronavirus relief package didn’t include financial benefits for illegal immigrants, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who called it “inhumane.”

The Treasury announced late Wednesday that Social Security beneficiaries who typically do not file a tax return will automatically get the $1,200 payment. The announcement is a reversal from earlier in the week when the Internal Revenue Service said everyone would need to file some sort of tax return in order to qualify for the payments. Democrats and some Republicans criticized the IRS for requiring so many extra hurdles for this vulnerable population to get aid when the government already has their information on file. The reversal came as the Trump administration tries to rapidly get stimulus payments out to...

Rebates for Individuals (§ 2201)The most wide-reaching provision in the law provides “2020 recovery rebates for individuals.” These rebates, which are characterized as credits against 2020 taxable income, will be issued in the amount of $1,200 for “eligible individuals” or $2,400 for “eligible individuals” filing a joint return. In addition, “eligible individuals” will receive $500 for each “qualifying child,” as defined by IRC § 24(c), for purposes of the child tax credit. This generally includes dependent children under the age of 17 for whom the individual has a social security number. “Eligible individuals” include “any individual” except for: Nonresident alien...