The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has produced a long report dealing with the questions that might be asked of nominees to positions in the new Administration for each agency, including Social Security. The part concerning Social Security begins at page 124.
The Social Security part reflects the biases of GAO, which I believe reflect a basically Republican take on Social Security. Some themes:
The Social Security part reflects the biases of GAO, which I believe reflect a basically Republican take on Social Security. Some themes:
- Social Security ought to get into the effort to mainstream people with disabilities by denying more of their Social Security disability claims and by somehow forcing those who get on benefits to go back to work.
- If there are backlogs at Social Security, it must be because of bad management
- Why can't Social Security close more field offices and reduce its workforce?
- Further resources for Social Security are out of the question, so it's only a question of spreading the pain around.
- And, of course, it's time for Democrats to get on board with cutting Social Security benefits because the trust fund is about to run out of money.
I know the list I am giving is a gross exaggeration of the GAO report, but there are assumptions written between the lines of this report and they are not the sort of assumptions that should be made in this political environment. Someone at GAO needs to wake up and figure out that come January 20 the Democrats will control the White House and the Congress.
2 comments:
Since the law says you are not disabled unless you cannot work it always seems odd to me that so many people seem to think that a high percentage of disabled people can be forced back into the work force. When will the powers that be finally figure out that national health insurance is probably the only thing that can reduce the number of disabled claims. Some people would not become disabled if they could afford treatment and others, some with severe impairments, would not even file for disability if they could get health insurance without being found disabled.
Excellent points, both. This GAO "report" seemed utterly juvenile to me. But then, many GAO and OIG reports strike me that way. There's no doubt that we need accountants in this world to keep track of things and money, but accountants don't know diddly squat about social policy in most cases...and this report certainly proves that point.
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