Unrelenting Austerity

     The President's proposed budget for the Social Security Administration for Fiscal Year (FY) 2013, which begins on October 1, 2012, is out. It calls for a near complete freeze in Social Security's administrative budget, with total outlays of $11.723 billion compared to $11.678 billion for the current FY (2012) and $11.888 billion for FY 2011.

     By law, the White House has to submit to Congress the Commissioner of Social Security's own budget request for the agency. I have not yet been able to find that number. Can anyone point me to it?
     Update: Found it.  The Commissioner is asking for $12.622 billion which I would call modest but which the White House and Congress would call out of the question.
    Further update: Social Security's own summary of the President's budget shows $444 million more than what the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) summary shows. The difference is attributable to a "program integrity base adjustment" and a "user fee" adjustment. I cannot say why there is this difference between the two versions of the President's budget. At best, one of these versions is misleading. Understanding the federal budget is difficult enough without this sort of thing.