Afternoon Roundup

     There are so many news articles coming out about Social Security that it's hard to keep up. Let me share a few that seem notable to me:

• MSN --  Trump’s nominee to lead Social Security Administration to face questions over DOGE cuts
• Paul Krugman --  Social Security: A Time for Outrage
• Government Executive --  Regional boards for federal agency coordination officially disbanded 
• Michigan Live -- AARP calls latest Social Security changes ‘deeply unacceptable.’ Will you be impacted? 
• CNBC --  Senators press Trump Social Security nominee on his views about privatizing the agency
• WSJ -- Dealing With Social Security Is Heading From Bad to Worse

Early Afternoon Roundup -- News Coming In Hot And Heavy

     Here's your early afternoon roundup of Social Security news:

• Federal officials have taken down that list of federal properties for sale but a new list is "Coming Soon."
• AARP is urging its members to contact their representatives in Congress to tell them that Social Security must be protected.
• 152 House Democrats have written the Acting Commissioner of Social Security to express "grave concern" over office closings and workforce reductions.
• No link on this but House Democrats plan to introduce three bills tomorrow to keep Social Security offices open, block DOGE access to Social Security data and to compel the President to account for DOGE activities at Social Security to this point.
• Jack Svahn, former Commissioner of Social Security, thinks that Congress won't act on Social Security's long term funding problems until things become critical. He's right. There's no point wringing your hands over it today. Nothing will happen for several years. 
• A current Social Security employee talks movingly about the trauma being inflicted on agency employees.
• A retired Social Security employee writes about the cuts at his old agency. 

    By the way, if the response from House Democrats to the crisis at Social Security seems tepid to you, just what do you think that the minority party in both Houses of Congress can do? Seriously, what would you have them do? I can suggest one thing -- force a government shutdown unless the White House agrees to end the madness throughout the government -- but they're doing that. Expect a government shutdown next week.

Interview With Commissioner

     The AARP has published an interview it conducted with Social Security Commissioner Martin O'Malley. As you would expect from one with a political background,  O'Malley touts his agency's accomplishments. I would certainly agree that the changes in how Social Security deals with overpayments are an accomplishments. However, the accomplishments in providing service to claimants have not been across the board. As a few workloads gets diminished, others increase. It's all you can do when you lack adequate budget resources.

    There's one thing about the interview that I can't figure out. At one point the interviewer mentions that O'Malley is the first Social Security Commissioner who has served in elective office. O'Malley corrects him saying "Second! I’ll show you the wax figure down the hall." Who was that other Social Security Commissioner who had previously served in elective office? Is the "wax figure" business just some odd figure of speech or some sort of reality?

AARP Calls For Better Service

    From a letter sent by the AARP to the leadership of the House Social Security Subcommittee:

... AARP continues to be concerned about extraordinary delays within the Social Security disability process. ...

 SSA needs to do better and should continue to prioritize the reduction of disability wait times as a key objective of the agency. In order to help SSA make improvements to the disability process, it is imperative that Congress provide the agency with the funding it needs. Social Security has a responsibility and a duty to provide timely and quality service to the public, and Congress has an obligation to ensure the agency has the resources, staffing and oversight necessary to fulfill its mission. For too long, Congress has underfunded SSA, leading to increased customer service deficiencies that have become far too common.

AARP continues to urge Congress to approve $15.5 billion for SSA administrative expenses for FY 2024. ...

    I hope AARP knows that the Social Security Subcommittee can do nothing about Social Security's appropriation. That's the responsibility of the Appropriations Committee.

An Extra $1.4 Billion, Please

     From Money:

Government agencies aren’t exactly known for their stellar customer service. People looking for help from the Social Security Administration (SSA), however, may have it particularly bad.

Average call wait times with the agency have more than doubled in a year, according to SSA data. Even worse, AARP, a leading critic of the SSA's customer service, says that the average amount of time for a Social Security disability claim to be processed has increased to 223 days — and that 10,000 people die every year while waiting for approval. ...

The SSA received a $785 million increase in administrative funding this fiscal year to revamp operations. Now AARP is campaigning for the agency to get another increase of $1.4 billion to address its woeful customer service. ...

I've Got News For The AARP: That $785 Million Appropriation Increase Is Less Than The Increase In Inflation So Don't Expect Improved Service

     From AARP:

We’re asking the Social Security Administration (SSA) to put customer service on the front burner now that Congress and the Biden administration have approved a $785 million budget increase for the agency.

AARP members sent Congress more than 200,000 emails last year urging it to approve more funding for customer service issues amid historically high wait times and a backlog in disability claims. The agency primarily blamed the delays on years of understaffing and insufficient funds. ...

We wrote to SSA Acting Commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi last week, urging her to make customer service a top priority in the operating plan the agency is required to submit to Congress next month as part of the recently approved 2023 spending bill. ...

AARP Urges Increase In Social Security's Administrative Budget

     From a letter from AARP to Congressional leaders:

AARP has great concerns that SSA will be unable to maintain customer service at current levels, deficient as they are, without funding above the current funding level under a continuing resolution. Hence, we believe the Congress should provide an anomaly for SSA that is no less than the anomaly requested by the Administration, $14.1 billion. AARP does appreciate that the Congress provided some additional funding for SSA for FY 2022, but that amount was $847 million less than the President’s FY 2022 Budget request and was far less than the amounts needed to cover uncontrollable increases in its fixed expenses. The Acting Commissioner correctly predicted on April 28, in the FY 2022 Operating Plan the Congress requested, that the $13.341 billion in funding provided in the FY 2022 omnibus would result in “longer lines and wait times in our field offices, and growing backlogs as we work through increased claims.”

The added burden occasioned by the pandemic did not help matters, but a steady erosion in SSA’s administrative funding over the past decade is the primary reason for the rapid decline in customer service. Between 2010 and 2021, SSA’s operating budget shrank by 14 percent even as the number of beneficiaries grew by 22 percent to more than 70 million Americans. The latest available SSA data shows that disability processing times have skyrocketed to an all-time high of 198 days – nearly three times longer than just a decade earlier. SSA also reports that callers to the national 1-800 number today are waiting about 31 minutes, or about ten times longer than callers waited in FY 2012. And, more importantly, the average disability claimant today will likely wait more than 2 years for a final hearing decision while their health worsens – tragically, more than 10,000 people die every year while waiting for a decision.

Social Security Seeks $800 Million Bump In CR

    The AARP has written a letter to the Acting Commissioner of Social Security asking pointed questions about the sorry state of service that the agency is giving the public. It's reproduced below. However, I'm pretty sure that the letter is more about influencing Congress to appropriate more money for Social Security than it is about pressuring the Acting Commissioner. At about the same time as it released this letter, AARP also sent out a press release quoting a Social Security official on  the sorry state of the agency's appropriations which has led to an adequate workforce. The press release calls for additional funding for the Social Security Administration. 

    A "Dear Colleague" letter directly from Social Security is even more pointed. It says that the agency is seeking an $800 million bump in the Continuing Resolution (CR) bill which must be passed before the end of this month in order to keep the government operating. The $800 million would be to prevent further deterioration in service. That would be extraordinary. I've never seen anything from Social Security like this letter., which was surely cleared by the White House. Here's some language from it:

... Prior to the pandemic, we had approximately 60,000 employees. Now, we have approximately 56,000 employees – a 7 percent drop. As we lose employees, our service deteriorates. This issue is particularly acute in our State disability determination services (DDS), where we decide initial disability claims and reconsiderations, due to historically high attrition as workloads become less reasonable with fewer staff. ...

Claimants are currently waiting an average of six months for a decision on their initial disability claims, which is unacceptable. This is two months longer than they waited in FY 2019. Wait times for our National 800 Number have also increased significantly. Callers are waiting over 30 minutes, on average – more than 10 minutes longer than in FY 2019. ...

As a result of the pandemic, the backlog in initial disability claims is approaching the one-million mark (929,000 as of August 2022, an increase of 189,000 claims from the end of last fiscal year, September 2021). Insufficient funding for staffing and overtime to reduce this backlog would result in increasing wait times. ...

 Click on images to view full size

AARP Concerned About Idea Of SSA Administering Paid Leave Plan

     From the AARP:

...  Lawmakers are considering a paid leave benefit that is funded by taxpayers.  Such paid leave benefits would be administered through an existing federal agency.  Currently, the Social Security Administration is being considered to manage the paid leave benefit.

AARP sought to understand the views of voters 50-plus on the topic.  While there is broad support for such a program, older voters are concerned that administering this benefit through the SSA would negatively impact the administration of Social Security benefits to retirees. ...

     This is the first I've heard that Social Security might be involved in administering a paid leave plan. If that's to happen, the agency certainly needs a lot more resources. It would be a throwback to the 1960s when Social Security was running Medicare and to the 1930s and early 1940s when Social Security was running a number of other programs. Social Security's administrative funding was vastly better in those days.

SSAB Urges That SSI Recipients Receive Covid-19 Relief Payments Automatically

     From a press release:

Today, the Social Security Advisory Board (“Board”) sent a letter to Commissioner of Social Security, Andrew Saul, urging action related to relief payments to Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients and restoring representative payee monitoring.

The Board urged the Commissioner, under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (Pub. L. 116-136), to work with the Department of the Treasury to ensure that those who receive SSI payments also receive relief payments automatically and quickly, without filing any forms. ...

     Honestly, unless your goal is to harass SSI recipients, I don't know why you want to make them go to the trouble of filing any kind of tax return. Social Security has all the info in its databases needed to make these payments. Forcing SSI recipients to file tax returns makes more work, not just for them but also for the IRS and Social Security, which will both be receiving phone calls about this.  Of course, one guiding principle of the Trump Administration is what some have referred to as "performative cruelty", that is cruelty for the sake of cruelty conspicuously aimed at disfavored groups. Poor people are certainly disfavored by this Administration. If you’re poor, it must be because you’re lazy or because God doesn’t love you. In any case, if you’re poor, you can’t be a Republican and that’s good enough reason for you to be punished.

     Update: More pressure on this issue, now from AARP:

...  When contacted by AARP for clarification about the requirement for low-income SSI and VA beneficiaries to file a tax return to receive a stimulus payment, an IRS official would only say that “guidance is still in the process.” In addition, SSA announced on April 3 that it is working with the IRS to clarify the requirements for SSI beneficiaries: “We are working closely with Treasury to address outstanding questions about our SSI recipients in an attempt to make the issuance of economic impact payments as quick and efficient as possible.” SSA added that economic impact payments won't count as income for SSI recipients, and the payments will be excluded from resource calculations for 12 months.

As it did with Social Security beneficiaries, AARP is urging the IRS to reverse course and make automatic stimulus payments to SSI and VA beneficiaries without the burden of filing any additional paperwork such as a tax return. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, free tax services for low-income filers such as the AARP Foundation Tax-Aide program have been forced to suspend operations. ...

Mind Boggling

     There's a report out that AARP, which bills itself as Social Security's most ardent supporter, is helping fund the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a sinister far right group which has long advocated privatization of Social Security.

Their Only Real Interest Is Selling Insurance

     From Daniel Marans writing for the Huffington Post:

The largest seniors group in the country has launched a campaign to get presidential candidates to discuss their plans for Social Security -- only it won’t say which Social Security reforms it prefers, and progressive retirement policy leaders are none too happy about it.

 AARP, a nonprofit with 37 million members all over the age of 50, announced its “Take A Stand” initiative last November. The organization is asking presidential candidates to present their detailed plans for shoring up Social Security’s finances and ensuring that its benefits are adequate now and in the future. ...

The campaign includes a multi-million-dollar TV advertising blitz in early primary states. In one of the spots, a donkey and an elephant stand by as a phone with “Social Security” on the caller ID continues to ring.

“You can’t deal with something by ignoring it,” the narrator says. “But that’s how some candidates seem to be dealing with Social Security.” ...

[T]he campaign refrains from passing judgment on the merit of the candidates’ Social Security plans. As long as they propose ways to close the program’s long-term funding gap and maintain adequate benefits, AARP gives the candidates credit for “taking a stand.” ...

AARP’s neutrality about the substance of the candidates’ plans rankles progressive advocates, who have taken a strong stance against benefit cuts and believe that the country’s largest and most-recognized senior organization should as well. ...

Big Return From Social Security

     From a study by Gary Koenig of the AARP Public Policy Institute and Al Myles of Mississippi State University:

Social Security’s economic impact starts when its recipients spend their benefits on goods and services.The businesses that receive these dollars use them to pay their owners and employees, purchase additional items to sell, and pay rent, taxes, and the other normal costs of doing business. Their suppliers in turn use the revenue they receive to pay their employees, suppliers, and so forth....

 Every dollar of Social Security benefits generates about $2 of economic output. ...

Social Security benefit payments in 2012 supported:

• About $1.4 trillion in economic output (goods and services)
• Just over 9.2 million jobs
• About $774 billion in value added (gross domestic product)
• More than $370 billion in salaries, wages, and other compensation
• Tax revenues for local, state, and federal governments exceeding $222 billion, including $78.9 billion in local and state taxes and $143.3 billion in federal taxes

AARP Calls For New Commissioner

     The AARP has issued a press release calling for the President to nominate a new Commissioner of Social Security.

AARP Opposes COLA Cut

     From the Huffington Post:

On Wednesday, AARP volunteers and staff will visit Capitol Hill to deliver a strong message to Congress on the fiscal cliff: leave Social Security and Medicare off the table. ...

"Americans have spoken and they don’t want Congress or the President to make changes to Social Security or Medicare in any last minute deficit deal,” AARP’s volunteer president Rob Romasco said in a statement....

Specifically, AARP opposes changes to Social Security's cost of living adjustments, or COLAs. The fiscal deal proposal offered by Republicans on Monday suggests changing the way inflation is calculated, which would reduce COLAs by over $100 billion over the next decade according to the Congressional Budget Office.

"Reducing Social Security benefits by moving to a chained consumer price index (CCPI) –- estimated to take $112 billion dollars out of the pockets of current and future Social Security beneficiaries in the next 10 years alone – is inappropriate and unwarranted," AARP CEO A. Barry Rand wrote in a letter to lawmakers earlier this month.

And They'll Change Back Again In A Heartbeat If It Makes Business Sense

     From the Washington Post:

AARP, the lobbying powerhouse for older Americans, last year made a dramatic concession. Amid a national debate over whether to overhaul Social Security, the group said for the first time it was open to cuts in benefits.

The backlash from AARP members and liberal groups that oppose changes in the program was enormous — and this time around, as Washington debates how to tame the ballooning federal debt, AARP is flatly opposed to any benefit reductions for the nation's retirees.

The Election Is Over -- We Can Now Talk Social Security

     With the election over, Social Security is starting to come up more frequently in public discussions. Ironic, isn't it, that Social Security is discussed more after the election than before. Here are some items I've noticed:

• Harry Reid, the Senate Democratic leader, has said emphatically since the election that "We are not going to mess with Social Security." 
• There was a rally featuring Democratic politicans and labor leaders yesterday in Philadelphia opposing Social Security cuts. 
• The AARP has sent a post-election letter to members of Congress and the President opposing the chained CPI concept. The chained CPI method is a sneaky way of cutting Social Security benefits by using a different less favorable method of computing the inflation adjustment in Social Security. Over time, this would amount to a significant reduction in Social Security benefits. 
• Peter Orszag, who was President Obama's first Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is talking up raising the normal retirement age even further and also cutting Social Securtiy benefits fairly dramatically -- but only years into the future. Easy for Orszag to propose. He's making millions of dollars a year on Wall Street.

AARP Opposes Extension Of Partial FICA Holiday

     AARP has come out in opposition to any extension of the partial F.I.C.A. tax holiday. The F.I.C.A. tax supports the Social Security trust funds. The partial F.I.C.A. tax holiday of the last two years is set to expire at the end of the year unless continued. General revenues have been used to make up for the lost F.I.C.A. tax revenues over the last two years.

Weirdness At AARP

    AARP is running a $50,000 Fill The Social Security Gap Sweepstakes where you can "Empower yourself with Social Security facts" and  "win big!"

Social Security For Dummies

     The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) is endorsing a new book, Social Security for Dummies, written by Jonathan Peterson, an AARP employee, and published by John Wiley and Sons, Inc. The book is currently #371 on the Amazon best-seller list.