Jul 10, 2014

"The Capital's Chief Scapegoat Wrangler"

     From Michael Hiltzik at the Los Angeles Times:
As we all know, the official animal of Washington, D.C., is the scapegoat. Today's example is Carolyn W. Colvin, the acting commissioner of Social Security.
Colvin recently was raked over the coals by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista [CA], the capital's chief scapegoat wrangler, for problems at Social Security that can largely be traced to its budget squeeze. In other words, to Congress.
In a letter to Colvin, who has been acting commissioner since February 2013 and has been nominated to take over the job officially, Issa blamed her for a backlog of disability reviews that dates back to before 2007 and that is directly related to Congress' failure to provide for enough administrative law judges to handle the workload.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is news? She knew what she was getting into and if she didn't, Shane on her.

Anonymous said...

Darn autocorrect...should be "shame" not Shane!

Anonymous said...

Too many rich people governing the country. Thats why the economy and SSA programs are in the toilet.

Not ms/mrs colvin fault.

Anonymous said...

What's the answer? Let the poor people govern?

Anonymous said...

I read the letter and Issa's concern is not the "backlog" but the manner in which they are forcing judges to churn out cases like a mill. Of course, this was all Astrue's idea.

Anonymous said...

Congress has reduced funding. Fine. But poor use of available funding is a bigger problem than reduced levels, especially when said poor use has become the norm. Does a fair bit of this lay at Astrue's feet? Sure. But he hasn't been there for quite a while, and we all know that they damn sure aren't making any significant changes/improvements to the way things are done. Frankly, I was encouraged by the agency's strategic plan for the coming decade, as it was the first evidence I'd personally seen that somebody, somewhere up the ladder had a realization that changes were going to have to happen, period. And to 10:50, that's quite a generalization; please feel free to actually support that statement...

Anonymous said...

"What's the answer? Let the poor people govern"?

Answer:Poor exceptionally intelligent people.

Anonymous said...

"And to 10:50, that's quite a generalization; please feel free to actually support that statement"

I watch the national news(cnn)every day. Fact plus speculation. Feel free to support your theory with fact 12:50 PM, July 10, 2014

Anonymous said...

"...forcing judges to churn out cases like a mill. Of course, this was all Astrue's idea."


12:18 PM is QFT

Anonymous said...

SSA received a generous budget all thing considered and have spent it foolishly on exec travel, uneeded meetings, specialized units in the PSCs to pull in the easy field office work while diminishing field office hires and prospects for the future. Like the VA scandal, when congress asks where the money went SSA will be left with no excuse.

Anonymous said...

PC's do the 'easy' windfall offsets as well as the 'easy' RIB claims. So the FO employees get left the hard cases and newer Claims Reps are expected to do the 'harder' work right out of training.

Anonymous said...

SSA's main problem is the albatross of SSI around its neck. If you don't support de-federalizing SSI, you might as well just myob.

Anonymous said...

"SSA's main problem is the albatross of SSI around its neck. If you don't support de-federalizing SSI, you might as well just myob."

Ironic since the whole point of SSI in 1974 was to Federalize what were then existing State Welfare Programs. This was a brainchild of the Nixon Administration. What goes around, comes around

Anonymous said...

Agreed - SSI, if not reformed or returned to the states, will be the death of SSA as we know it. As it is right now, everything takes a back seat to the endless mounds of SSI busy work!

Anonymous said...

SSI doesn't need to go away but yep reform is sorely needed. Once upon a time you could only be found disabled if you met a listing. Bringing that back for SSI is worth considering.