Fiscal Responsibility Summit

President Obama is convening a half day fiscal responsibility summit today that will discuss entitlement programs. The Washington Post and New York Times have articles.

My opinion is that this summit will amount to little. There is zero chance that this Congress will enact any cuts in Social Security and little chance that it will raise the cap on wages covered by FICA. The real problem is Medicare.

Baltimore Sun On Location Of National Computer Center

I have commented before that the Baltimore Sun hardly seems to notice what goes on at the largest employer in its area, a situation which I find deplorable since it conveys the message that what goes on at the Social Security Administration is unimportant. The possibility of an important new National Computer Center for Social Security somewhere within 40 miles of Social Security headquarters is finally attracting the Sun's attention. The Sun is running an editorial pushing for the National Computer Center to be located in a brownfields area along the route of a proposed 14 mile rail line between Woodlawn where Social Security's central offices are located, and Hopkins Bayview. Brownfields are abandoned or underused industrial and commercial facilities available for re-use. The Sun wants a twofer. They want to use the rail line as a reason to locate the National Computer Center in a rundown area of Baltimore County and to use the National Computer Center as a justification for funding to build the rail line through the rundown area.

Readers who live in the area can tell us how plausible the Sun's plan is.

Purged Files

I mention this because it may be of help to people outside the Social Security Administration planning Social Security training. A recent Social Security contracting notice makes a passing reference to some purged files that Social Security has created. Apparently, these are realistic Social Security disability files, but with all information that might identify a particular person purged. These files are used for training purposes. Creating this sort of file is no mean feat. Others outside Social Security could use purged files for training purposes. They may be obtainable by Freedom of Information Act request.

Change We Can Believe In

Headline from the September 2008 newsletter of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR): "SSA Budget Situation Looks Bleak." That was not an alarmist headline. That was just how things appeared at the time.

FY 2010 Budget Coming Next Week

The New York Times is reporting that President Obama will release his recommended budget for FY (Fiscal Year) 2010 next week. The 2010 fiscal year begins on October 1, 2009. Meanwhile, most federal agencies, including Social Security, are working under a Continuing Resolution (CR) for FY 2009 that freezes their expenditures at the previous fiscal year's rate. Social Security got a special appropriation of $500 million in the economic stimulus bill which helps a lot, but would still like to get a real budget for FY 2009. It is hard for the agency to plan in these circumstances.

Disgusting Tactic

From The Messenger of Fort Dodge, Iowa:

"This certified letter is your official notice that you are personally under attack."

Julia Markey, 86, of Fort Dodge, received a letter from the National Retirement Security Task Force Thursday that told her the Social Security Trust Fund didn't have money and that she could lose her Social Security checks.

That is, of course, unless she helped the National Retirement Security Task Force by sending it money so it could continue to lobby against the "liberal big-spenders" to ensure she can continue to get funds.

"And if I don't receive your generous $200 help within the next 168 hours, I may not have enough reserve battle funds to carry on this fight for your Social Security," the letter stated.

Blog Discussed On XM?

I have an anonymous report that a post on this blog was discussed on the political channel of Sirius XM radio. Can anyone confirm that?

Koniag Gets $100 Million Contract

The Baltimore Business Journal reports that Koniag Services, Inc. received a five year $100 million information technology support contract with the Social Security Administration. Koniag is replacing CACI International. Koniag will also be setting up an emergency backup center for Social Security in North Carolina. Koniag's website says that it is an Alaska native-owned company.

Some Sensible Talk About Obama's Plans For Social Security Reform

There has been a good deal of hand-wringing on the left over the prospect of the entitlements summit that President Obama has talked about. The idea is that Peter Orzag, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), is the mastermind of a planned raid that will dramatically cut Social Security benefits. Ezra Klein at The American Prospect gives what I think is a much more realistic projection of how this is likely to play out:

That, basically, has been Orszag's project: Talk a lot about the health care crisis and longer-term problems in the budget and get people to stop talking about an illusory crisis in a made-up program called socialsecurityandmedicareandmedicaid. Because what Orszag and [Nobel Pize winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul] Krugman both realize is that Social Security's unfunded liabilities only look like the sort of problem you need to "fix" if you're mixing it in with Medicare's unfunded liabilities. If there's an "entitlements problem" that requires an "entitlements commission" then that will cut Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid. If there's no "entitlements problem" and instead a health reform problem and some small questions about a politically electric program, then what you get is health reform -- which is also a way to slow Medicaid and Medicare growth without resorting to cuts -- and an end to the fear-mongering on Social Security. Orszag is one of the good guys here.

NASI To Get A Contract

From a procurement notice posted by Social Security:

The Social Security Administration (SSA) intends to negotiate a sole source agreement with the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI) for the purposes of providing services to organize and conduct a 1-day policy research and education seminar that would examine the interactions between workers compensation and SSAs disability programs. ... In order to systematically collect and analyze state data, NASI has organized and heads a Workers Compensation Steering committee comprised of the nations leading experts in workers compensation policy and practice. This unique steering committee provides expertise needed to shape the data collection and review process, as well as the expertise needed to inform NASIs policy related discussions and analyses in the areas of disability and workers compensation. As a result, NASI has the unique expertise to provide the most comprehensive national aggregates and state level estimates of workers compensation costs and benefits, as well as the mechanisms to readily provide the best high level research and analysis as a result of the data they have collected. The seminar is to be conducted in the September/October 2009 timeframe.