President-elect Barack Obama pledged yesterday to shape a new Social Security and Medicare "bargain" with the American people, saying that the nation's long-term economic recovery cannot be attained unless the government finally gets control over its most costly entitlement programs.
That discussion will begin next month, Obama said, when he convenes a "fiscal responsibility summit" before delivering his first budget to Congress. He said his administration will begin confronting the issues of entitlement reform and long-term budget deficits soon after it jump-starts job growth and the stock market."What we have done is kicked this can down the road. We are now at the end of the road and are not in a position to kick it any further," he said. "We have to signal seriousness in this by making sure some of the hard decisions are made under my watch, not someone else's." ...
Five days before taking office, Obama was careful not to outline specific fixes for Social Security and Medicare, refusing to endorse either a new blue-ribbon commission or the concept of submitting an overhaul plan to Congress that would be subject only to an up-or-down vote, similar to the one used to reach agreement on the closure of military bases.
But the president-elect exuded confidence that his economic team will succeed where others have not.
"Social Security, we can solve," he said, waving his left hand.
Jan 16, 2009
Once Again, What Does This Mean?
From the Washington Post:
Labels:
Financing Social Security
Jan 15, 2009
Economic Stimulus Bill Has $900 Million For Social Security And Bonus For SSI Recipients
Talking Points Memo has a detailed summary of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the economic stimulus bill that is being proposed by the incoming Obama Administration. Here are the Social Security items:
This is money to be spent in the next nine months!- Social Security Administration Modernization: $400 million to replace the 30 year old Social Security Administration's National Computer Center to meet growing needs for processing retirement and disability claims and records storage.
- Social Security Administration Disability Backlog and Claims Processing: $500 million to help the Social Security Administration process a steep rise in disability and retirement claims, getting people their benefits faster, and preventing existing backlogs from getting worse. Within this total, $40 million will help SSI upgrade health information technology.
- Payments to Disabled and Elderly: $4.2 billion to help 7.5 million low-income disabled and elderly individuals with rising costs by providing an additional SSI payment in 2009 equal to the average monthly federal payment under the program (approximately $450 for an individual and $630 for a couple). This one-time payment will serve as an immediate economic stimulus as half of SSI recipients have no other form of income and the other half average outside income of less than $450 per month.
Update: Here is a link to the draft bill. The Social Security appropriations part is on page 205.
Labels:
Economic Stimulus,
SSI,
Transition
Social Security Scores Well On President Bush's Management Scorecard
Social Security scored exceptionally well on President Bush's last Management Scorecard, being one of only two agencies with "green" across the main board. The categories are Human Capital, Commercial Services Management, Financial Performance, E-Government, and Performance Improvement. Not all was quite so good. Social Security got only a Yellow in Eliminating Improper Payments, which is a little weird, since Social Security is almost certainly making vastly more improper payments than any other agency. What does it take to get a red?
Labels:
SSA Management
Jan 14, 2009
How Will Deputy Commissioner Be Selected?
From Alexis Simendinger at the Lost in Transition blog:
By the way, the blog says the process for Obama will be much like what President Bush followed. Does this mean that Michael Astrue chose Andrew Biggs to be his Deputy Commissioner from a list of several eligibles? I find that hard to believe.
Obama transition officials are making it clear to incoming Cabinet secretaries and agency heads that they'll be handed a slate of perhaps five or six pre-screened candidates for the top jobs in their departments and encouraged to interview and hire from among those candidates. If the secretaries want to reach outside those lists to make their own hires, they will be required to justify their picks to the president-elect's top advisers, some of whom are headed for the offices of the White House Counsel and White House personnel.What will the process be for selecting a new Deputy Commissioner for Social Security? Does Michael Astrue, a Bush appointee, get the same consideration as an Obama appointee?
By the way, the blog says the process for Obama will be much like what President Bush followed. Does this mean that Michael Astrue chose Andrew Biggs to be his Deputy Commissioner from a list of several eligibles? I find that hard to believe.
Labels:
Andrew Biggs,
Transition
Jan 13, 2009
Social Security In Top Ten
The federal government's Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has released its Human Capital Survey. According to FedBlog, Social Security ranks 10th in Leadership and Knowledge Management and 7th in Job Satisfaction. Social Security did not rank in the top ten in the other six categories. Of course, there are dozens of federal agencies, so reaching top ten in any canegory is an achievement.
Labels:
SSA Management
Jan 12, 2009
Furlough Of California DDS Employees?
State Disability Determination Services (DDS) offices make the determinations on Social Security disability claims at the initial and reconsideration levels. All salaries and other costs of these state DDS offices are paid by Social Security, but these are still state offices with state employees. Events that affect other state employees can affect DDS employees and complicate matters for Social Security.
The state of California has a terrible budget crisis. The governor of the state has furloughed all state employees for two days each month, beginning next month. This sort of thing has happened before in other states and almost always the DDS offices are exempted, since the state budget problems have nothing to do with the federally funded DDS. It is not clear what will happen in California this time. The governor announced that there would be no exemptions, but the Service Employees International Union is reporting that the governor's offices is saying that "certain revenue generating departments would be exempt from layoffs." I do not know whether this includes California DDS.
Can anyone at California DDS tell me what DDS employees are being told?
The state of California has a terrible budget crisis. The governor of the state has furloughed all state employees for two days each month, beginning next month. This sort of thing has happened before in other states and almost always the DDS offices are exempted, since the state budget problems have nothing to do with the federally funded DDS. It is not clear what will happen in California this time. The governor announced that there would be no exemptions, but the Service Employees International Union is reporting that the governor's offices is saying that "certain revenue generating departments would be exempt from layoffs." I do not know whether this includes California DDS.
Can anyone at California DDS tell me what DDS employees are being told?
From A Reader Who Knows John Tanner
From BPWUSA [Business and Professional Women USA] Area 6 Representative, who knows the new Chairman of the House Social Security Subcommittee, John Tanner:
He is my representative and has been for some time. He is a lawyer and a good one; therefore he understands legal arguments and does not appear to have forgotten the realities of practice. His son in law practices in this area and is a member of our legal services board. His constituent service people are experienced with Social Security. We do not always agree as I am more liberal than he but I appreciate that he is candid and does not overpromise on any issue. He also takes time to listen. I am on the Board of BPWUSA; I have thus lobbied him for years. He listens; he supports some of our issues and tells us when he cannot. For example, last year he voted for the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act; I am expecting him to do so today. He has supported Legal Services.
Labels:
Congress and Social Security
Social Security Workforce Increases Slightly
Below are the September 2008 figures for the number of employees at Social Security, recently released by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), along with earlier figures for comparison purposes.
- September 2008 63,990
- June 2008 63,622
- March 2008 60,465
- December 2007 61,822
- September 2007 62,407
- June 2007 62,530
- March 2007 61,867
- December 2006 63,410
- September 2006 63,647
- September 2005 66,147
- September 2004 65,258
- September 2003 64,903
- September 2002 64,648
- September 2001 65,377
- September 2000 64,521
- September 1999 63,957
- September 1998 65,629
Note that even with an appropriation for Social Security for the last fiscal year that was well above the rate of inflation and that was higher than what President Bush had proposed, Social Security's workforce only increased by about 1,600 employees. It is going to take a lot of money to increase Social Security's workforce to where it needs to be.
Labels:
Budget,
Social Security Workforce
Jan 11, 2009
No Kidding
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a report saying that it found that the "Notices sent to denied [Social Security disability] claimants may provide inconsistent and sometimes misleading information about the evidence obtained."
This has been a problem as long as I have been involved in this field of work, which is now about 30 years. There have been many reports and Congressional hearings over the years on this issue and promises from every Social Security Commissioner, including the current one.
When clients ask me about details of these decisions, I always tell them not to bother because there are so many mistakes that a close reading of the denials is pointless. Some of what is in these decisions is, in effect, in code anyway. How would a claimant know that the use of the word "severe" is, in effect, an insult since it means that Social Security has just determined that there is essentially nothing wrong with the claimant -- that there is nothing to anything the claimant has alleged?
This has been a problem as long as I have been involved in this field of work, which is now about 30 years. There have been many reports and Congressional hearings over the years on this issue and promises from every Social Security Commissioner, including the current one.
When clients ask me about details of these decisions, I always tell them not to bother because there are so many mistakes that a close reading of the denials is pointless. Some of what is in these decisions is, in effect, in code anyway. How would a claimant know that the use of the word "severe" is, in effect, an insult since it means that Social Security has just determined that there is essentially nothing wrong with the claimant -- that there is nothing to anything the claimant has alleged?
Labels:
GAO
Jan 10, 2009
SSA FY 2010 Budget Request To Be $11.5 Billion? -- We Hope!
The National Association of Disability Examiners (NADE) has released a letter that it sent President-elect Obama. The letter contains this sentence: "In communicating with you and your team at this time, our purpose is to respectfully request that, as a critical component of that support, an additional $960 million in funding be included beyond SSA’s projected budget request for $11.5 billion."
This is the first time that I have heard anything about Social Security's budget request for the 2010 Fiscal Year (FY), that begins on October 1, 2009. I hope that NADE has heard correctly on what Social Security's budget request will be. It would be wonderful to get almost a billion dollars more on top of such a request, but $11.5 billion would be a great start. The problem, even with that amount, may be how much must be spent to update Social Security's computer infrastructure, which has serious problems that raise the possibility of catastrophic failure.
Update: As I suspected, it was too good to be true. The $11.5 billion figure is what NADE and other groups want. There is no word yet on what Social Security is going to ask for.
This is the first time that I have heard anything about Social Security's budget request for the 2010 Fiscal Year (FY), that begins on October 1, 2009. I hope that NADE has heard correctly on what Social Security's budget request will be. It would be wonderful to get almost a billion dollars more on top of such a request, but $11.5 billion would be a great start. The problem, even with that amount, may be how much must be spent to update Social Security's computer infrastructure, which has serious problems that raise the possibility of catastrophic failure.
Update: As I suspected, it was too good to be true. The $11.5 billion figure is what NADE and other groups want. There is no word yet on what Social Security is going to ask for.
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