Feb 11, 2020

No Help In Presiden't Budget

     The President's budget for Fiscal Year 2021, which begins on October 1, 2020,  would increase Social Security's funding from $13.30 billion in the current fiscal year to $13.71 billion in fiscal year 2021, an increase which may not be enough to even cover inflation. It's certainly not enough to improve service. It assumes that Social Security's workyears (including Disability Determination Services employees) will decline slightly from 76,142 to 75,725.
     Appropriations must be approved by Congress. The President's budget can be, at most, persuasive to some Republicans in Congress but few if any Democrats care what the President wants. The actual appropriations must be ironed out between the House and Senate and what the President wants doesn't matter that much. For that matter, this budget is far more the wish list of Mick Mulvaney, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, than of President Trump.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Trump Administration and the extreme right are at war with Social Security. To say otherwise is just another lie. They want to kill the program and privatize it contrary to the wishes of the vast majority of the American people. If you believe otherwise or take them at their word you are a damn fool. They don't care how many people are homeless or on the street. You can just go off somewhere and die for all they care. All they care about is tax cuts and windfalls for the billionaire class. The only social mobility left in this country if you aren't born into the elite is downward. There will soon be no middle class. If you are relying on social security or medicare and you vote you for them you are just plain stupid. Do they have to hit you on the head with a hammer?

Anonymous said...

I wish I would see as much anger and indignation about the daily incompetence, egregious denials of due process, and other problems with the SSA that cause claimants to wait years to get benefits they need and deserve. There are thousands of people who become homeless or end up in otherwise dire straits waiting to get benefits they paid for from this nightmare bureaucratic machine. The agency seems to try to make it as difficult as possible to apply for and pursue an application and that was the case before this administration - is a feature of this entrenched mess of a bureaucracy, not of any administration or political party. I see comments, one after another, ad nauseaum, raging against this administration, republicans, etc. But I see fee complaining about this ridiculous nightmare system and people are more angry about some employees losing telework than about people going homeless and hungry when they are entitled to benefits. This agency is the most dysfunctional thing I've ever seen. Yet, everyone just seems to accept it. Maybe that's because it benefits the employees and attorneys as it is and they think any efforts to improve might mess up their deal, I don't know. I just wish I'd see some of that anger and righteous indignation directed at the things that are keeping people from getting, on a timely and fair basis, the benefits they need and deserve. No one cares about wasted taxpayer money paying DDS docs to not read medical records and issue ridiculous opinions with no accountability. No one cares about ALJs with 12 percent approval rates who set out to find any reason to deny someone, and then flat out lie about the evidence to do so. Again, with no accountability. Everyone seems happy accepting the wretched status quo but get out of control with rage regarding the current political situation. Wow, just wow.

Anonymous said...

1 in 5 Americans receive benefits, so it cant be all that bad.