East Memphis Office To Close

     From the Memphis Flyer:

If all goes as planned, the Social Security office in East Memphis will close on December 28th, leaving 75,000 beneficiaries with the burden of traveling miles away to receive assistance.

 The East Memphis office, located on Players Club Parkway, is slated to close due to administrative budget cuts.

 The closure is estimated to save $300,000 annually....

On an average day, the office sees more than 150 walk-ins and receives more than 500 telephone calls.  ...

"Much of our administrative costs are to fund our employees and facilities across the country, and these cuts make it challenging to acquire and maintain adequate staffing," said Frank Viera, deputy regional communications director for the Social Security Administration. "Last fiscal year, we lost more than 4,000 federal and state employees, including more than 1,600 field office employees. We cannot afford to replace these employees, and we cannot continue to keep as many facilities operating as in prior years."

Disability Hearing Backlog Remains High

     From the Arizona Republic:

Adria Howard doesn't understand why her application for Social Security disability payments was denied without explanation.

The mother of two from Tolleson, Ariz., had worked until recently, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer that had spread to her back, and the pain made her job impossible. Now, she is preparing an appeal, and statistics show it could take nearly a year to get a hearing with an administrative-law judge. Meanwhile, her bills stack up. ...

In Arizona, about 8,900 people are waiting for a hearing to determine if they will receive benefits. Nationally, about 750,000 await a hearing. ...

"It seems the system is set up to require a lot of people to appeal," said Amina Kruck, vice president of advocacy programs at Arizona Bridge to Independent Living, a non-profit organization run by people with disabilities that assists other people with disabilities. ...

Financial struggles are common as the benefits application process drags on. Typically, those who are sick have lost all of their income, which can force them to rely on family help or other social services.

Suspect In Custody In Arizona Bombing

Abdul Latif Aldosary

     A suspect is in custody in connection with the bombing Friday at the Social Security field office in Casa Grande, AZ. He is Abdul Latif Aldosary, a 47 year old refugee from Iraq. A neighbor reports that he does not attend mosque and that "he hasn't any problems against America; he's very thankful he got to be a refuge somewhere." However, Aldosary has a history of imprisonment for communicating threats against an employer by mail and telephone.

A Counter-Offer -- Reduce The COLA

     From the Los Angeles Times:

Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, provided the first GOP counter-offer to President Obama’s push for higher taxes on the wealthy. McConnell said his party would like to increase the Medicare eligibility age and ask wealthier Americans to pay higher Medicare premiums. He also suggested paring back the cost-of-living increases given to Social Security beneficiaries ...

     And McConnelll is up for re-election in two years but he's more worried about re-nomination at the moment.

Explain Why This Would Work

     Dick Durbin, the Senate Democratic Whip is floating the idea of a new bipartisan commission to keep Social Security solvent for the next 75 years.

Former Manager Charged With Identity Theft

      From the Associated Press:

A former manager at the Social Security Administration has been charged with stealing another man's identity and using it to make off with more than $160,000 worth of stocks. 

Randolph Hurst, of West Warwick [RI], was indicted Thursday. He appeared before a magistrate in U.S. District Court in Providence on Friday but did not enter a plea. ... 

Prosecutors say he spent all the money, including $60,000 for gold coins.

     Update: As a reader pointed out, it appears that Mr. Hurst has been trying his hand at representing Social Security claimants since retiring from Social Security.  I wonder about this statement at his website:

For part of my career, I decided whether or not someone qualified for disability benefits.  Any approval that I made was considered a final decision of the Social Security Administration.  I was trained to understand and perform the work of the disability examiners on the State medical board for initial and first appeal cases.  I was trained as well as to understand and perform the work of the Administrative Law Judges for the final appeal for previously denied claims for disability benefits.

That's the sort of statement that would get an attorney in trouble since, at best, it contains great exaggeration but Hurst wasn't an attorney. Of course, if you believe the testimonials on his website (and they look awfully suspicious to me) Hurst helped a postal service employee get the money he deserved from a lawsuit. If he did, he was clearly practicing law without a license.

Explosion At Arizona Social Security Office

     From the Associated Press: 

Authorities say they’re investigating a small explosion that happened at the back entrance of a Social Security Administration office in a small town about 50 miles south of Phoenix.

Casa Grande Fire Marshal Barbara Rice says the explosion was reported just before 8:30 a.m. Friday and no one was injured.

White House Proposes Extending Payroll Tax Cut

     From TPM (emphasis added):

In a Capitol meeting with House Speaker John Boehner Thursday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner submitted the Obama administration’s proposal for addressing medium term deficits, and avoiding across the board tax increases and spending cuts at the end of the year.

Republicans called the proposal outlandish and brushed it aside as unserious. But it’s almost entirely comprised of policies Obama campaigned on and included in his budget for the current fiscal year....

The administration asked Republicans to boost the economy, too, by either extending the payroll tax cut, or replace the holiday with a similar stimulus, such as the Making Work Pay tax credit in the Recovery Act. 

Commissioner Tours Storm Ravaged Areas

     From the Staten Islander:

The Social Security Administration is warning that Social Security beneficiaries have recently been the intended targets of an identity theft scheme.

During a tour of the storm ravaged parts of the state Wednesday that began in Staten Island, the commissioner of the federal agency reminded borough residents to be extra vigilant.

"I urge all Staten Islanders to take precautions when asked for personal information," said Commissioner Michael J. Astrue. "You should never provide your Social Security number, bank account numbers, or other personal information unless you are extremely confident about the identity of the person to whom you are providing the information.

The State Of The Fiscal Cliff Negotiations -- Social Security Benefits May Escape Cuts. Republicans Want To Escape Blame

     From Politico:

There is only one way to make the medicine of tax hikes go down easier for Republicans: specific cuts to entitlement spending. ...

A top Democratic official said talks have stalled on this question ...  Rob Nabors [the White House negotiator], has been saying: ‘This is what we want on revenues on the down payment. What’s you guys’ ask on the entitlement side?’ And they keep looking back at us and saying: ‘We want you to come up with that and pitch us.’ That’s not going to happen.” ...

It is possible Social Security gets tossed into the mix, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) plans to fight that, if he has to yield on other spending fronts. ...
 
[T]hat will most likely be the deal Republicans will be staring at: tax hikes now in exchange for Medicare changes way later.

     Note that Republicans are trying hard to avoid responsibility for Social Security or Medicare cuts. They want the President and Democrats to "own" those cuts even though it is the Republicans who are demanding them. Republicans want to continue to call, in the abstract, for cuts in "entitlements" while demanding that Democrats propose the actual cuts to Social Security and Medicare. The public doesn't oppose cuts to "entitlements" since the public has little idea what that term means. If anything, most of the public seems to think that "entitlements" are some form of "welfare" that doesn't go to people like them. The public does strongly oppose cuts in Social Security and Medicare, however, since the public, in general, is either receiving Social Security and Medicare or expects to.