New York Times - Oct. 19, 2009

As if people weren't paying enough already for their medicare bills, a new increase that will take effect next year will raise medicare payments up to 15 percent. But this new increase won't effect everyone, just roughly 27 percent of medicare beneficiaries, who are mostly senior citizens. The other 73 percent of the medicare population will be covered because their medicare premiums can't go up past their social security benefits.

In other news, President Obama will be flying to New York tomorrow for a Democratic Party meeting with all of the chief investors and donors to his campaign. However, most of the biggest donors and financial giants won't be attending. Part of the reason, as listed in the article, was that "Wall Street titans profiting from their government bailout may use their winnings to give back to Washington in return." According to Scott Talbot, a lobbyist for the industry’s Financial Services Roundtable, showing up at the benefit could make a donor a target for criticism.