What Appropriations Delays Mean

From the Free Lance-Star of Fredericksburg, VA:

Attorney Bruce Billman dreads the question every client asks.

They come to his office wanting help getting Social Security disability payments. And they all want to know: How long will it take?

"God, I hate looking them in the eye and telling them this," Billman said.

He doesn't have good news: On average, his clients will wait about a year to get a hearing to determine whether they'll get disability payments.

The backlog has long been considered a crisis by those in the field. A September report put out by the Social Security Administration noted, "For some, the long wait for their day in court leads to homelessness and the loss of family and friends. Sadly, people have died waiting for a hearing."

A $606 billion bill to fund education, health and labor programs may have relieved some of the long wait, said those familiar with the backlog. About $10 billion would have gone to Social Security for fiscal year 2008. But President Bush vetoed the bill Tuesday, saying it included too many pet projects and would lead to higher taxes. ...

One client of Bill Botts, executive director of Rappahannock Legal Aid, just got a letter saying it will be 14 months before her hearing.

Another of Botts' clients killed himself days after learning he would have to wait a year for his hearing.

And the wait time for a hearing in Fredericksburg area is much better than the national average.

Indictments In California

From the Sacramento Business Journal:

The owners of Our House Defines Art, an El Dorado Hills art gallery and framing business, were indicted Wednesday on eight counts of conspiracy to defraud the Social Security Administration.

A federal grand jury returned the indictment, which alleges Mary Margaret Donnelly, aka Mary Margaret Wittekind, and Michael Glen Donnelly, aka Michael Hubbs, falsely claimed to be disabled and not working from 2002 - 2007, when they were in fact working on their gallery. The indictment says the Cameron Park couple used $70,000 in disability benefits they were not entitled to.

No More Recess Appointments For Bush

America Blog reports that the Democratic Majority Leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, has decided to keep the Senate in session over the Thanksgiving holiday to prevent the President from making any recess appointments. I had suggested this idea about a year ago. If Reid had started doing this earlier, Andrew Biggs would not be Deputy Commissioner of Social Security.

Prefunding Con Job?

From the Atrios blog:

Someone showed up at the end of the Social Security thread to write this:

So math isn't one of your skills, then? The system goes into the red around 2017 - a decade from now. At that point, money that would otherwise flow towards discretionary programs will start bleeding to Social Security and Medicare. It will get worse over the course of the following 2 decades, until eventually, there won't be any money left for discretionary spending at all.

Essentially this is the prefunding con job. Since FICA revenues will cease to support general expenditures in the near future what we must do is... increase the FICA tax so it continues to support general expenditures. In other words, we need to increase the regressive payroll tax so that we don't need to raise other taxes. And we're doing it to "save" social security.

This is the con, laid out clearly for all to see. This has nothing to do with "saving Social security" and everything to do with increasing the regressivity of the tax code.

Someone had an idea for a lockbox, but the Village Elders decided that was a very silly idea.

An Important Point

From Tom Shoop at FedBlog:

Here's just a sampling of headlines from today's Washington Post:

• State Dept. Won't Order Diplomats to Iraq
• TSA Minimizes Failure to Detect Threats
• FEMA Accused Of Wasting More Katrina Funding
• Justice Dept. Conducting Criminal Probe of Baghdad Embassy Contracts

This is a pretty typical day for the newspaper. Can there be any doubt at this stage that management of federal operations is not just something that's worthy of the next president's attention, but the critical issue facing the country in the next few years? If recent history has taught us anything, it's that we should be judging our candidates on the basis of how well they will manage the critical functions of the federal government, which are literally a matter of life and death to Americans. And we should be holding their feet to the fire when they make cavalier policy proposals like not replacing half of federal employees who retire and threatening to cut health benefits for political appointees.

While presidential candidates like to focus on policy proposals, and political reporters remain obsessed with the who's-up-who's-down horse race aspects of the campaign, the critically important issue is whether the next president will form an effective team of appointees, make sure agencies have the capacity to perform the roles they've been assigned, and hold federal managers and executives accountable for results. This issue ought to be central to the campaign, and its barely on the periphery.

Omnibus Coming

Last night, the House of Representatives failed by only two votes to override President Bush's veto of the Labor-HHS Appropriations bill, that included funding for the Social Security Administration. Here is a report from the Washington Post.

The next step is what is known as an "omnibus" bill. From The Hill:

After struggling for months, Democrats say they are close to finalizing their strategy to send 11 of 12 remaining annual appropriations bills in one omnibus package to President Bush’s desk. Their strategy has been complicated by Bush’s threats to veto most of the spending bills because they exceed his request. ...

The White House on Thursday slammed the Democrats’ plans, signaling that it will not accept an omnibus bill $11 billion above Bush’s request.

Will this omnibus bill attract enough Republican votes to override the President's veto? How much money will be in the omnibus for Social Security? What happens if Congress cannot override the President' veto of the omnibus bill?

Monthly Social Security Stats Released

The Social Security Administration has released its monthly package of statistics on Title II and Title XVI.

Social Security Offices Woefully Understaffed

From an opinion piece by John Kuhnlein in the Arizona Daily Star:

Nationwide, those persons who have become disabled and can no longer work are finding it harder and harder to get Social Security benefits. In some jurisdictions, applicants for disability benefits wait more than two years to have their claim processed. ...

Such delays can cause applicants serious hardship.

For example, applicants could lose their homes while they wait for a decision. These financial pressures only add to the problems of people suffering from disabling medical conditions. ...

We would not tolerate such behavior from a private insurance company. We have the right to expect better treatment for such vulnerable citizens.

Social Security employees are dedicated and hardworking. Given the proper resources, they can eliminate the current backlog of disability claims.