Gerald Ford On Social Security

Gerald Ford had a somewhat different attitude towards Social Security than the current Republican President, who is firmly opposed to any tax increase and wishes to privatize Social Security. It is amazing to think that Ford, a Republican, made the following remarks in 1976, which sound like the sort of thing that even a Democrat might be scared to say today:

WHILE the press is here, I think it might be appropriate to point out to them the reason for this meeting.

As everybody knows, I submitted to the Congress a very constructive proposal for the purpose of maintaining the financial integrity of the social security trust fund. This was submitted at the time of our budget or economic program, at the time of the State of the Union and, unfortunately, it appears that the Congress is going to fail to recognize the problem and tragically fail to do anything to solve the problem.

This concerns me very greatly, because we have 39 million individuals, most of them older, who are depending upon the financial soundness of the trust fund. And we leave literally millions and millions more who are paying into the trust fund, who are counting on the financial integrity of that fund.

This administration feels an obligation to protect the investment of those who are retired and those who are counting on retirement. The purpose of this meeting is for me to get the up-to-date information from the responsible people in the executive branch who, I'm sure, are likewise concerned, as I am, about the current situation.

The Congress cannot fail the older people and others who are either on retirement or about to retire. We expect some action. They cannot fail to respond to this very important and, I think, critical need.

Simple arithmetic indicates that the social security trust fund is headed for trouble. Unless the Congress acts to ensure that the fund takes in as much as it pays out, there will not be adequate security for old or young.

In my State of the Union Message in January, I proposed a payroll tax increase of .3 percent each for employees and employers, to increase revenues into the trust fund to ensure that benefits will be available to all who have earned them.

My proposed increase would cost workers, with a maximum taxable income, less than a dollar a week. This increase will help stabilize trust funds so that current and future recipients can be assured the benefits that they have earned. I urge the Congress to take the earliest possible action on my proposal to preserve the integrity of the social security trust fund.

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Ticket to Work Meeting

Social Security's Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Advisory Panel has scheduled a teleconference meeting for January 10 from 2:00 to 4:00. Members of the public may listen in by calling 1-888-790-4158 and using the pass code: PANEL TELECONFERENCE.

Empire Justice Center Newsletter

The Empire Justice Center has issued its November 2006 edition of Disability Law News, its newsletter mostly dealing with Social Security disability issues.

Determining Disability Is Tough

Determining whether a person is disabled is tough, whether it is Social Security or workers compensation doing the disability determination, as this item from the Insurance Journal shows:

People who receive higher disability ratings for work-related back injuries don't necessarily fare worse over the long term than those who get lower ratings, a Saint Louis University study finds...

"A disability rating is supposed to reflect the amount of impairment a person has at the time that a case is closed. The presumption is that levels of impairment are stable and related to day-to-day levels of function. I was shocked that the associations between disability rating and subsequent levels of function weren't stronger," said Raymond Tait, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry at Saint Louis University School of Medicine.

Disability ratings also differed between African-Americans and Caucasians. According to Tait, those differences probably reflected differences in treatment: whites were four times more likely to have surgery than blacks. Those who had surgery received larger settlements for their injuries, Tait said.

"While surgery inflated disability ratings, there appeared not relationship between surgery outcomes and how a person did thereafter," he said.

Tait and colleague John Chibnall, Ph.D., also a professor of psychiatry at Saint Lois University, looked at about 1,500 Missouri workers – 580 African-Americans and 892 Caucasians – whose Workers' Compensation claims for lower back pain were settled between Jan. 1, 2001 and June 1, 2002.

Researchers interviewed the employees 21 months after their settlements about how they were doing. They asked questions about pain intensity, general physical and mental health and whether they currently were working.

Tait and Chibnall said that their findings "raise questions about both the validity and the fairness of the current disability determination program. Disability settlements are designed to give people money toward a fresh start. Those settlements do not appear to reflect the residual levels of disability that people actually experience."

SSA Definitely Closing On January 2

President Bush's order shutting federal offices for former President Ford's funeral allowed agency heads to make the decision on which offices should stay open for "essential public business." There was little chance that Commissioner Barnhart would use this to keep Social Security offices open, since they were closed for the funerals of former presidents Nixon and Reagan. The word has now come down that Social Security offices will be closed on January 2.

Jo Anne Barnhart's Father Dies

The father of Jo Anne Barnhart, Commissioner of Social Security, passed away on Christmas day, according to TCPalm, a website associated with several Florida newspapers.

Bush Orders Federal Offices Closed On Tuesday

From the Office of Personnel Management

President George W. Bush To Close Federal Offices in Tribute to Former President Gerald R. Ford

Washington, D.C. -- By Executive Order of President George W. Bush, all executive departments, independent organizations and other agencies of the Federal government shall be closed on Tuesday, January 2, 2007, as a mark of respect for Gerald R. Ford, the 38^th President of the United States.

U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Linda M. Springer notified Cabinet Secretaries, Agency Heads and Chief Human Capital Officers governmentwide about the closure shortly after President Bush signed the Executive Order on December 28, 2006. Springer provided agency leaders with a copy of the President's proclamation, which designates Tuesday, January 2, 2007, as a National Day of Mourning.

The closure order includes Federal offices, with the exception of those offices and installations, or parts thereof, in the Department of State, the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, or other departments, independent organizations, and governmental agencies whose agency head determines should remain open for reasons of national security or defense, or other essential public business.

Former President Ford's Funeral Scheduled

The Associated Press reports that the state funeral for former President Gerald Ford has been scheduled for Tuesday, January 2, 2007. President Bush has not yet announced that federal offices will be closed that day, but it would be a major surprise if he does not do so.