For years, lawmakers have struggled to balance reducing government spending while maintaining funding for essential services.

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In Washington, they're talking about cutting Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security for the first time in generations.

Republicans are publicly discussing the prospect of making cuts to mandatory spending programs, which could include programs like Social Security and Medicare. Social Security benefits are paid to millions of Americans on a monthly basis,

The nonpartisan Senior Citizens League expects the COLA to be 2.3% for 2026, based on a forecast that inflation will drop throughout the coming year. Another forecast by independent Social Security and Medicare analyst Mary Johnson puts the expected COLA increase at 2.

House Republicans just unveiled a budget plan that includes massive spending cuts— $880 billion from Medicaid over the next decade. Social Security? Safe. Medicare? Also safe. But Medicaid? Not so much.

Note: Because Toni recently received more reader queries about creating a My Social Security account after the account is blocked, we are rerunning the following column from April of 2024.

Undocumented immigrants in the U.S. contribute billions of dollars per year in federal taxes, state and local taxes, Social Security, and Medicare.

Immigrants were claiming 54 percent less in benefits from the federal government than native-born American citizens, including Medicare and Social Security, a study released Tuesday showed. The United States government spent about $3.

Dan Bishop, a former House lawmaker, said he expects the White House to avoid cuts to Social Security and Medicare.