The President does not believe that Social Security is a driver of our near-term deficit problems or is currently in crisis. But he supports bipartisan efforts to strengthen Social Security for the long haul, because its long-term challenges are better addressed sooner than later to ensure that it remains the rock-solid benefit for older Americans that it has been for past generations. The President in the State of the Union laid out his principles for Social Security reform which he believes should form the basis for bipartisan negotiations that could proceed in parallel to deficit negotiations:
- Strengthen retirement security for the low-income and vulnerable; maintain robust disability and survivors’ benefits.
- No privatization or weakening of the Social Security system; reform must strengthen Social Security and restore long-term solvency.
- No current beneficiary should see the basic benefit reduced; nor will we accept an approach that slashes benefits for future generations.
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Apr 13, 2011
President On Social Security
From a White House summary of President Obama's speech today:
Wouldn't these comments seem to fly in the face of no ALJ hiring until Sept? Clearly, more ALJs producing more decisions supports the President's SSA goal of maintaining robust disability and survivors' benefits. If SSA is not getting hit hard on budget cuts for FY 11, what is the reason for cancelling ALJ hiring?
ReplyDeleteHe should also speak about administration of Social Security. With the sudden halt of all overtime several weeks ago, cases are already piling up. If this continues for months, the backlogs in the payment centers will grow in very short order to what they were at their worst.
ReplyDeleteAlso, he should add one more no-no:
ReplyDelete3. No more borrowing from the trust fund.
Instead, find a way to invest the surplus FICA proceeds at interest, which would not favor one over another.
We want the real excess dollars and the real interest to stay intact.
If you can't keep your hands off the reserve fund, find another entity that can!
Don Levit
Don't ever forget that it was our leader who cut Social Security's medicare program by 500 billion in a effort to fund his flawed Obama care program. It was a Democrat cut and not supported by a single Republican!
ReplyDelete