Give Them A Piece Of Your Mind!

A press release from Social Security:

Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, today announced a new way for members of the public to participate in open and transparent government. In response to President Obama’s executive order on improving regulations and regulatory review, Social Security is inviting people to provide direct feedback on its rules and regulations. Ideas and comments may be emailed to RegsReview@ssa.gov.

“Social Security values the public’s input and wants to provide a meaningful opportunity for people to participate in the regulatory process,” Commissioner Astrue said. “I invite the public to share their thoughts and I am excited to hear their ideas.”

Social Security’s program rules are available online and may be accessed at www.socialsecurity.gov/regulations. There, you will find complete information about Social Security’s laws, regulations, rulings, and employee operating instructions.

For information about what Social Security is doing to improve its regulations and how the agency will implement the President’s executive order, go to the Open Government website: www.socialsecurity.gov/open/regsreview/.

Let me make a suggestion. The Social Security Act says that the agency may "prescribe the maximum fees which may be charged for services performed [by an attorney or other person representing a Social Security claimant] in connection with any claim." Social Security wastes a lot of time now on petitions for approval of attorney fees in matters such as overpayments and disability benefits terminations where the fee agreement process cannot be used. The statutory language gives the agency the authority it needs to just set maximum fees for this sort of thing. Just have the attorney notify Social Security of the fee that he or she is charging. No approval required for individual cases. This would save a lot of time.

So, Why Is This A Tough Call?

From a poll by Public Policy Polling for Daily Kos:

Currently, workers pay social security payroll taxes on up to $106,800 of their salary. To ensure the long-term viability of Social Security, would you rather have people pay social security taxes on salaries above $106,800, or would you rather see benefits cut and the retirement age increased to age 69?

Raise
payroll cap/Cut benefits

All 77 10

Dem 84 4
GOP 69 17
Ind 77 11

Tea Party 67 20

18-29 80 0
30-45 69 17
46-65 82 8
65+ 75 13

$0-30K 79 5
$30-50K 75 11
$50-75K 79 7
$75-100K 78 13
$100K+ 72 18

Bad News For Social Security

The Associated Press reports that "A White House official says President Barack Obama will call for a five-year freeze in non-security, discretionary spending during his State of the Union address."

Don't Mug Social Security

From Bob Herbert writing in the New York Times:

When you see surveillance videos of some creep mugging an elderly person in an elevator or apartment lobby, the universal reaction is outrage. But when the fat cats and the ideologues want to hack away at the lifeline of Social Security, they are treated somehow as respectable, even enlightened members of the society.

We need a reality check. Attacking Social Security is both cruel and unnecessary. It needs to stop.

President To Speak In Code?

From Bloomberg:

President Barack Obama may signal in his State of the Union address tonight that he’s ready for compromises on Social Security ... He just won’t say it. ...

“He’s going to speak in code,” said Michael Tanner, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington that backs benefit cuts.

“The average person on the street won’t have a clue,” said Nancy Altman, an advocate for keeping Social Security as it is ...

"Shared Sacrifice"

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the President's State of the Union Address tonight will call for "shared sacrifice" on Social Security but will offer no specific plan.

Slow Rollout

I am told that the newsletter for Region III of Social Security's Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR) says that there are 729 attorneys and others in that region who represent Social Security claimants who have requested electronic access to their clients' files but that only 41 have been signed up. Probably there are more within that region who would like this access but who do not even know who or how to ask.

What is going on? We were led to expect a much faster rollout. It seems like are rolling exquisitely slowly at the moment.

State Of The Union Prediction

From the New York Times:

Advisers say that Mr. Obama’s [State of the Union] address will be more thematic than heavy on specific policy initiatives. ...

Mr. Obama is unlikely, they said, to embrace the recommendations of a bipartisan majority on the debt-reduction commission he created, which proposed slashing projected annual deficits through 2020 with deep cuts in domestic and military spending, changes to Social Security and Medicare, and an overhaul of the individual and corporate tax codes to simplify them and to raise additional revenues.

He's Back At It

Eric Conn's "campaign" to be appointed to the Social Security Advisory Board started in 2009. He's back at it in 2011:

Lawyer Eric C. Conn's first step in trying to get President Barack Obama to appoint him to the Social Security Advisory Board wasn't to contact his congressman or senator.

No, Conn's first move was to hire 83-year-old Bluegrass music legend Ralph Stanley to perform in a music video with a rewrite of the classic bluegrass song “Man of Constant Sorrow.”

His second move was to team Stanley with “the Obama Girl,” Amber Lee Ettinger — whose 2008 video, “I've got a crush on Obama,” went viral and was seen by more than 15 million viewers — and Jesco White, the “Dancing Outlaw” who gained notoriety after a PBS documentary aired on his life.

“The main purpose of the video is to get appointed to the … board,” Conn, who handles Social Security disability cases, said in a recent interview. “… Of course, if there is some collateral benefit for the (law) practice, that's great too.”

The Drumbeat Gets Louder

From CBS News:

With many expecting President Obama to endorse a fiscally moderate path forward in his State of the Union address next week - and perhaps call for changes to Social Security in the process -- progressives are urging the president to protect entitlement programs. ...

In an interview with Bloomberg Television that airs Friday night, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine said that Social Security "might all fit within a rubric of trying to deal with deficit issues and deal with them in an appropriate way that doesn't choke off the economic recovery."

Kaine said he has not read a draft of the speech, but he said the president will address the deficit "significantly" in his State of the Union speech -- and even more so when he delivers a budget to Congress in February. ...

In light of all this, 33 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus sent a letter to Mr. Obama today, the Washington Post's Greg Sargent reports, urging him to promise to protect Social Security in his State of the Union address. ...

Potential 2012 Republican presidential contender Tim Pawlenty published an op-ed for the Washington Post today calling for dramatic entitlement reforms.

"Given no other choice, I believe a bipartisan consensus could be created around ideas such as means-testing the cost-of-living increase in Social Security benefits