The White House has announced that William G. Dauster has been nominated to be a public member of the Board of Trustees of the Social Security Trust Funds. Dauster is a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania. He has served in various staff positions in the Senate and White House. I'd call this a ceremonial position except that there really isn't any ceremony involved. Social Security's Office of Chief Actuary prepares the annual report on the Trust Funds. The Trustees sign off on it. I suppose someone in this position could ask questions of the Actuary or issue public pronouncements but I doubt that anybody would care. The position is little more than a formality.
4 comments:
I don't know. Chuck Blahous seemed to exploit the title for credibility, and got quoted in a lot of papers because of it.
Although the actuaries prepare all the numbers and technical material in the Reports, I think the Trustees have a hand in some of the introductory material. For example, in the Highlight section of the Report, there is a paragraph that starts "The Trustees recommend that lawmakers address the projected trust fund shortfalls in a timely way..." I don't think the actuaries wrote that part.
https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/TR/2019/II_A_highlights.html
Also, there is a Summary of the Trustees Report that includes a "Message to the Public" from the Trustees.
https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/TRSUM/tr19summary.pdf
I'm sure a lot of the press just read the summary and highlights of the Reports. The Trustees can't influence the numbers but they can spin them however they wish.
The trustees specify the assumptions for the actuaries model. So public trustees could have significant influence.
Charles, with respect, for once you're being much too flippant.
First, Bill Dauster is a solid progressive with significant experience on the Hill and knowledge of both how the programs work and how Washington (and, I guess, Baltimore) work.
Second, the Trustees matter. For instance, Social Security replacement rates were controversially dropped from the Trustees report in 2014, largely because they were the bete noire of one public trustee (Blahous). Vigorous pushback could've made the difference.
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