What Is Going On In Pittsburgh?

    Just a few days ago, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran a bizarre op ed piece that baldly stated that all one had to do to get on Social Security disability benefits was to go to one psychiatric exam and feign mental illness, which is simply untrue. Now the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review is running this article:

Few of the petitioners who appear before Administrative Law Judge Manny Smith hear the word “no.”

Smith grants benefits in close to 80 percent of the Social Security disability claims he hears, nearly twice as often as other administrative judges in Western Pennsylvania and much higher than the national average of 58 percent, federal data show. ...

“If we don’t do something, in four years it won’t be able to pay full benefits,” said Sarah Swinehart, a spokeswoman for the House Ways and Means Committee. Its Social Security Subcommittee has held five hearings on disability insurance over the past year. ...

“The whole procedure may have made sense 20 years ago, when most people were honest and didn’t know about” the disability program, said James Bukes of Mt. Lebanon, who retired in January after two decades as an administrative law judge. “But now it’s become such a big business.” ...

Legislation to change the system might emerge this fall. Lawmakers want to ensure Social Security keeps paying those who need help while safeguarding taxpayer dollars, Swinehart said. ...

The rise in disability applications to 2.88 million in 2011 stems from a half-dozen sources, including the economic downturn and a surge in legal representation for applicants, Pierce said. He said lawyers earn about $1.4 billion a year by representing disability appellants, about 85 percent of whom have private counsel. ...

The Social Security Administration has moved toward more standardized decision-making, said Assistant Deputy Commissioner Jim Borland. He said the number of judges who allow nearly all claims has fallen by more than half since 2007.

“We have created new tools to focus on quality,” Borland said. “Each quarter, we train our adjudicators on the most complex, error-prone provisions of law and regulation.” ...

[Richard J.] Pierce [a George Washington University law professor who has been harshly critical of ALJs] has suggested the government drop law judges from the process. He estimates their salaries and benefits cost more than $2 billion a year.

      A few points:

• The article does not once mention the aging of the baby boomer generation as a reason for the problems of the disability trust fund even though no one with any knowledge of the situation would deny that this is far and away the most important reason.
• The House Social Security Subcommittee may report out legislation in the next month to do something about Social Security ALJs.
• A Social Security Assistant Deputy Commissioner is bragging that the agency has found a way to "train" ALJs so that they allow fewer disability claims.
• Professor Richard Pierce thinks that Social Security's ALJs cost $2 billion a year. Since there are about 1,500 ALJs at Social Security, Pierce must think that pay and benefits for each ALJ are over $1.3 million a year. The real figure is less than one-tenth of that.
• The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review is owned by Richard Mellon Scaife. Scaife is best known for promoting bizarre ring wing conspiracy theories about President Bill Clinton, including accusing Clinton of murder and drug smuggling. In a bizarre twist, Scaife later endorsed Hillary Clinton when she was running for President. The Tribune-Review and Post-Gazette newspapers are bitter rivals.