Social Security field office closes. Tea Party Republican representing the District in Congress doesn't seem to care. Why should he? He wants to close down virtually the entire government. Anyway, that part of his District has mostly Democratic voters. He's got the Koch brothers on his side, so no problem. (By the way, I know that Social Security doesn't base field office closures on political clout and has taken a pretty hard line recently when those with political clout have tried to influence field office closures. Somebody's ox is going to get gored. The agency may as well use objective criteria when selecting whose ox it is. The point here is that the Congressman made no effort to keep that field office open. Most people would consider making that effort to be part of his job description.)
Update: The Tea Party member of Congress wrote a letter to the Acting Commissioner of Social Security about the office closure. So, is the Congressman representing his district or just being a hypocrite? That's the problem with being a Tea Party member of Congress. You want to close down government but your constituents like a lot of what the government does for them.
Update: The Tea Party member of Congress wrote a letter to the Acting Commissioner of Social Security about the office closure. So, is the Congressman representing his district or just being a hypocrite? That's the problem with being a Tea Party member of Congress. You want to close down government but your constituents like a lot of what the government does for them.
6 comments:
Ok, Charles. I get it. Republicans bad. Tea Party evil, evil, evil. Democrats good. Progressives saviors of the world who can do no wrong.
Interesting - a Democratic administration closes an office and a Republican with absolutely no power to stop it is blamed. Well at least you aren't biased.
Charles never claimed to be unbiased. This is his blog and not CNN. And in our little world of Social Security disability, generally, yes, tea party is evil...
If you read the actual news story run by WCTV, you will see that the Congressman has been in touch with the Commissioner to protest and discuss the closing and explore alternatives. But, why let facts get in the way of a good political diatribe. Oh, and Gadsden County has a population of only 46,000 people.
I realize that politics drives a lot of what happens with Social Security. I have represented claimants for Social Security since 1979. The Carter (D)administration started the "purge" in the late 1970s. People who had been on disability a number of years were examined and taken off disability if they did not meet a listing. The Reagan administration continued that process until Democrats and Republicans in Congress unanimously passed the Social Security Reform Act. That bill required a hearing before benefits could be terminated. The Clinton (D) administration gave us the Attorney Fee check "tax." The George W. Bush (R) administration paid claims to reduce the deficit. The Obama (D) administration has ALJs who are afraid to grant too many claims for fear they will be disciplined. Arguments can be made that both parties have from time to time been unfriendly to Social Security claimants and to Social Security Attorneys.
The Congressman is pretty late to the party if he's writing on 3/18 regarding an office closure scheduled for 3/28. Did anything come of this?
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