When Michael Astrue was appointed commissioner of the Social Security Administration in 2007, he found a desperately inefficient agency. Now, armed with $1 billion in funding from the federal government's stimulus bill, he's set to build a $750 million mega-data center and develop new software to reduce a massive backlog of disability claims.I understand Information Week wanting to think that the National Computer Center and some new software is going to slay the backlog dragon. It is a naive thought, but their focus is on Information Technology, so you expect that sort of thing from them, but giving Commissioner Astrue this kind of credit? The agency was in desperate shape when Commissioner Astrue came on board, but not because of inefficiency. The problem was lack of adequate staffing, a point that Commissioner Astrue now acknowledges, but which he spent two years downplaying. If John McCain had been elected President, Astrue would still be downplaying the staffing problem and the backlogs would not be getting better. It is not Commissioner Astrue but the election results that are leading to positive change at Social Security.
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Mar 1, 2009
Information Week On Astrue's Plans
Here is an excerpt from Information Week:
The last sentence is absolutely true.Republicans,in my opinion are only concerned with the wealthy not the vast misfortune or unfortunate in this country.Any president that can relate to such a people is the right president.
ReplyDeleteYou are on point in your analysis of this piece. However, one would expect Information Technology to be more familiar with SSA's recent history than this. In that regard, the emphasis on Astrue's role in whatever improvement we have been able to achieve is odd. In any event, we shall see what Ms. Glen-Croft makes of Astrue's contribution as time goes on.
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