The House Budget Resolution

     Below is the language from the House Draft Budget Resolution (starts on page 104) concerning Social Security:

(b) POLICY ON SOCIAL SECURITY. — It is the policy of this concurrent resolution that the House should work in a bipartisan manner to make Social Security solvent on a sustainable basis. This concurrent resolution assumes, under a reform trigger, that —

(1) if in any year the Board of Trustees of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund and the Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund annual Trustees Report determines that the 75-year actuarial balance of the Social Security Trust Funds is in deficit, and the annual balance of the Social Security Trust Funds in the 75th year is in deficit, the Board of Trustees should, no later than September 30 of the same calendar year, submit to the President recommendations for statutory reforms necessary to achieve a 75-year actuarial balance and a positive annual balance in the 75th year, and any recommendations provided to the President must be agreed upon by both Public Trustees of the Board of Trustees;

(2) not later than December 1 of the same calendar year in which the Board of Trustees submit its recommendations, the President should promptly submit implementing legislation to both Houses of Congress including recommendations necessary to achieve a positive 75-year actuarial balance and a positive annual balance in the 75th year, and the majority leader of the Senate and the majority leader of the House should introduce the President’s legislation upon receipt;

(3) within 60 days of the President submitting legislation, the committees of jurisdiction should report a bill, which the House or Senate should consider under expedited procedures; and

(4) legislation submitted by the President should — 

(A) protect those in or near retirement;

(B) preserve the safety net for those who count on Social Security the most, including those with disabilities and survivors;

(C) improve fairness for participants;

(D) reduce the burden on and provide certainty for future generations; and

(E) secure the future of the Disability Insurance program while addressing the needs of those with disabilities today and improving the determination process. 

(c) POLICY ON DISABILITY INSURANCE. — It is the policy of this concurrent resolution that the House should consider legislation on a bipartisan basis to reform the Disability Insurance program prior to its insolvency in 2028 and should not raid the Social Security retirement system without reforms to the Disability Insurance system. This concurrent resolution assumes reform that—

(1) promotes opportunity for those trying to return to work;

(2) ensures benefits continue to be paid to individuals with disabilities and their family members who rely on them;

(3) prevents a 7 percent across-the-board benefit cut;

(4) legislation submitted by the President should — 

(A) protect those in or near retirement; 

(B) preserve the safety net for those who count on Social Security the most, including those with disabilities and survivors;

(C) improve fairness for participants;

(D) reduce the burden on and provide certainty for future generations; and

(E) secure the future of the Disability Insurance program while addressing the needs of those with disabilities today and improving the determination process.

(d) POLICY ON SOCIAL SECURITY SOLVENCY. — It is the policy of this concurrent resolution that any legislation the House considers to improve the solvency of the Disability Insurance Trust Fund must also improve the long-term solvency of the combined Old Age and Survivors Disability Insurance Trust Fund.

     Some comments:

1. Seventy-five years is a very long time. Securing Social Security for 75 years into the future would require either dramatic cuts in Social Security benefits, significant tax increases or some combination of the two. How likely is it that a Republican controlled Congress would enact tax increases? No, this is Republicans trying to find a way to cut Social Security.
2. This includes the idea that the public will accept cuts in Social Security if we just "protect those in or near retirement."  Republicans have been pushing this idea for decades but the public hasn't been buying it -- at all. By this point, the faith of Republican leaders that this plan will work is pathetic.
3. Even though the draft resolution calls for no cuts in Social Security benefits for those in or near "retirement" it would be almost impossible to apply this to disability benefits. Accomplishing the goals of this resolution without "raiding" the retirement trust fund and without raising taxes would require dramatic cuts in disability benefits for those already on benefits unless there was some draconian limit on the number of people going on disability benefits. I don't know how you'd achieve this kind of savings without something like that 7% across the board cut.
4. Note that this draft doesn't say exactly what should be done. It just demands that the President and other Congressional committees do something. The resolution keeps saying what others "should" do. What if they don't actually do what this resolution says they "should" do? This is not a rhetorical question. Trump is unlikely to propose cutting benefits or raising taxes. The votes won't be there to report a bill out of committee that would do either. It's a bigger non-starter than enacting Trumpcare. This is a wistful statement of what Republicans in Congress would really love to do if they didn't have to worry about those pesky voters back in their districts.

A Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Acting Inspector General of Social Security, Gale Stallworth Stone, is warning citizens about a new Social Security Administration (SSA) employee impersonation scheme.  SSA and its Office of the Inspector General (OIG) are receiving reports from citizens across the country about phone calls from an individual posing as an SSA employee.  The caller attempts to acquire personally identifiable information from victims to then edit the victims’ direct deposit, address, and telephone information with SSA.

Acting Inspector General Stone warns citizens to be cautious, and to avoid providing information such as your SSN or bank account numbers to unknown persons over the phone or internet unless you are certain of who is receiving it.  “You must be very confident that the source is the correct business party, and your information will be secure after you release it,” Stone said.

See the full advisory at the OIG website.

Budget Plan Includes Possible Cuts For Social Security

     From the Washington Post(emphasis added):

House Republicans unveiled a 2018 budget plan Tuesday that would pave the way for ambitious tax reform legislation — but only alongside a package of politically sensitive spending cuts that threaten to derail the tax rewrite before it begins. ...

The House Budget Committee blueprint, which is set for a Thursday committee vote, sets out special procedures that could ultimately allow Republicans to pass legislation over the objections of Senate Democrats who can normally block bills they oppose. GOP leaders in the House, as well as top Trump administration officials, hope to use those procedures — known as reconciliation — to pass a tax overhaul later this year. ...

Unlike Trump’s budget, the House proposal cuts into Medicare and Social Security — entitlement programs that the president has pledged to preserve. ...

The Ways and Means Committee, which is drafting the tax bill, would be instructed to find $52 billion in deficit savings over the coming decade. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and the panel’s chairman, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Tex.), have said they intend to pursue a deficit-neutral reform bill, meaning the savings would have to be found in other programs under the committee’s jurisdiction — such as Medicare, disability aid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and unemployment compensation. ...

     Note that a budget plan only gives top line numbers -- gross amounts of appropriations in broad categories and gross amounts of savings to be achieved from broad categories of programs without specifying exactly what gets cut. Congress would then have to pass bills specifying exactly which agencies get how much for what purposes and exactly what would be cut to achieve the promised savings. Enacting a budget is tough enough. Enacting the appropriations and reconcilation bills needed to fulfill the budget is much tougher still.

Conn Sentenced To 12 Years

Conn on the lam as seen on a security camera in New Mexico

     Eric Conn has been given a 12 year sentence for defrauding Social Security. Once he's caught, he'll get addition time for having fled. He's going to be an old man by the time he gets out of prison, if he gets out alive. What I hear from criminal attorneys is that he'll end up doing a lot of that time in a federal super max prison and that's a real bad place to be doing time.

Report On Effects Of Telework

     From The Social Security Administration’s Telework Program and Its Effect on Customer Service by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG):

... As of January 2017,

• 4,526 (16 percent) of the 27,530 FO [Field Office] employees were participating in the telework pilot at 317 (26 percent) of the 1,213 FOs;
• 831 (19 percent) of the 4,298 TSC [Teleservice Center] employees were teleworking at 17 (68 percent) of the 25 TSCs; and
• 5,541 (64 percent) of the 8,725 hearing office employees were teleworking across all 164 hearing offices, National Case Assistance Centers, and National Hearing Centers. 

 SSA’s [Social Security Administration's] management information showed that teleworking FOs performed slightly less as well as the non-teleworking FOs while TSC teleworking staff performed slightly better than non-teleworking staff. Finally, as the number of hearing office teleworkers increased, hearing office productivity declined in three of the four metrics ODAR monitored. SSA explained that multiple factors affect productivity, regardless of telework. 

SSA managers and staff recognized various telework challenges, and SSA told us it was working to resolve them. SSA needs to establish a business plan that monitors telework productivity to ensure it will timely identify and correct trends that may negatively affect customer service. ...

Conn Spotted

     Eric Conn has been spotted in New Mexico.

Waiting In Arizona

     KVOA in Arizona reports on how Social Security's hearing backlog for disability claimants is affecting one woman struggling to get. The local Republican Congresswoman calls the wait "ridiculous." She's also written a letter to the Acting Commissioner of Social Security.

It's Nearly Certain That He'll Win But He Still Has To Wait And Wait

     From the Riverdale Press:

Ted Grohowski spent five days during a recent week in the hospital suffering from tender, infected ulcers on his feet — his sixth overall visit for the issue. The blisters are so painful, they often make him unable to stand up or walk. 

But for the 64-year-old, it is only one ailment on a laundry list of illness and injury. 

Some 14 years ago, Grohowski had a knee replacement that is now starting to fall apart. Last August, his left kidney was removed because of a cancerous tumor. 

He has a rotary cuff tear in his right shoulder that sometimes makes him unable to lift his head.

So, when Grohowski walked into the Yonkers Social Security office in April to file for disability, he thought it was a no-brainer. Two months later, however, the office sent him a letter rejecting aid, stating he “did not meet our standards.” ...

For most of his adult life, Grohowski sold jewelry in midtown Manhattan. While he enjoyed the work, the days were filled with long hours standing on his feet. After a while, it proved to be too agonizing, and he stopped working altogether more than a year ago.

He plans on appealing the Social Security Administration’s decision, which means he’ll have to go to court and state his case. But according to the disability adjudication and review office, Grohowski could wait as long as two years before he can appear before a judge. ...

One of the reasons there is such a backlog of cases ... is because of the federal government’s continual budget cuts to the Social Security program. President Donald Trump already has proposed another $64 million cut to the disability agency’s $813 billion budget. ...

     Yes, I know, he can get his early retirement benefits while he's waiting but most claimants can't.
     Don't ask how I know he's nearly certain to win. I represent claimants. I have to predict chances of success. It's easy to predict that he'll win. In better times he would be approved shortly after requesting a hearing. If the system were more sensibly and humanely administered, he would never have been denied.

NPR On Eric Conn

     National Public Radio reports on Eric Conn's strange story.

Trustees Report

     From a Social Security press release:

The Social Security Board of Trustees today released its annual report on the long-term financial status of the Social Security Trust Funds. The combined asset reserves of the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) Trust Funds are projected to become depleted in 2034, the same as projected last year, with 77 percent of benefits payable at that time. The DI Trust Fund will become depleted in 2028, extended from last year’s estimate of 2023, with 93 percent of benefits still payable.

In the 2017 Annual Report to Congress, the Trustees announced:

• The asset reserves of the combined OASDI Trust Funds increased by $35 billion in 2016 to a total of $2.85 trillion.
• The combined trust fund reserves are still growing and will continue to do so through 2021. Beginning in 2022, the total annual cost of the program is projected to exceed income.
• The year when the combined trust fund reserves are projected to become depleted, if Congress does not act before then, is 2034 – the same as projected last year. At that time, there will be sufficient income coming in to pay 77 percent of scheduled benefits.