Oct 23, 2008

Someone Notices That Astrue Is Stretching The Truth

Alex Wayne has written an article in Congressional Quarterly (subscription required) that points out that while Michael Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, is saying is saying that his agency is making progress on the backlog of disability claims awaiting a hearing, in truth, those backlogs have gotten measurably worse over the last year. A spokesman for Social Security could only make the argument that there was improvement because things were getting worse at a slower rate than they used to. Even this "improvement" is probably due to the fact that the agency has gotten a larger budget than President Bush and Commissioner Astrue asked for.

You may never have read Congressional Quarterly, but, trust me, it is an important publication. CQ is required reading for many in Congress and higher levels of government. No one else comes close to covering Washington the way CQ does. Issues that first appear in Congressional Quarterly are often picked up by the popular media. By the way, despite the name, Congressional Quarterly is published daily and e-mail updates throughout the day are available.

Update: The article is now available at CQ's free site.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"A spokesman for Social Security could only make the argument that there was improvement because things were getting worse at a slower rate than they used to."

The ship is still sinking, just not as fast. Typical government the "glass is half full" spin.