A Unitary Theory Of What Went Wrong At Social Security -- And Beyond

From The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule by Thomas Frank:

Conservatism ... seems actively to want an inferior product [government service]. Believing effective government to be somewhere between impossible and undesirable, conservatism takes steps to ensure its impotence. The result is predictable enough: another sour truckload of the mother's milk of conservatism, cynicism toward government.

Waiting In Milwaukee

From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

David Hintz had waited nearly three-and-a-half years for this.

At the end of July, the Social Security Administration called his attorney to schedule a hearing. A judge would finally determine if the 39-year-old man from Custer was eligible for disability payments.

For years, Hintz and his wife had lived off her parents. Blood clots in his lungs, an injured leg and a plethora of daily pain medication and blood thinners had kept Hintz out of the work force since 2004. He hoped the call from Social Security signaled the end to a long road.

Instead, the red tape only got longer and more tangled.

When Hintz's attorney reported that his client had moved from Custer to South Milwaukee last year, the Social Security worker said the case had to be sent back to Milwaukee.

Stephanie Tubbs Jones Dies

Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a member of the House Social Security Subcommittee, has died.

Massive Shredding Of Charter Hospital Medical Records

Charter Hospitals, which had been the nation's largest chain of psychiatric hospitals, went bankrupt. At one time Charter operated 90 hospitals around the country. Some of the hospitals were sold and continued in business under other names, but many closed for good. I have recently learned that most, if not all, of the medical records generated by the Charter Hospitals that closed for good have been shredded. There was no money to pay for continued storage of the medical records. Apparently, the state governments in the states in which Charter had operated were offered the records, but most, if not all of them declined to accept the records.

This is awful, just dreadful. There should be laws to prevent this from happening. This can affect the outcome of Social Security disability cases.

OMB Clears Proposed Rules On Authorization Of Representative Fees

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which is part of the White House, must clear all proposed regulations before they are published in the Federal Register. This item just appeared on the OMB webite:

GENCY: SSA	RIN: 0960-AG82
TITLE: Authorization of Representative Fees
STAGE: Proposed Rule	ECONOMICALLY SIGNIFICANT: No
RECEIVED DATE: 05/30/2008	LEGAL DEADLINE: None
** COMPLETED: 08/19/2008	COMPLETED ACTION: Consistent without Change

Usually, within a few days after OMB clears a proposed regulation it appears in the Federal Register and people can comment upon it.

The proposed new mental impairment listings were cleared by OMB on July 9, but has still not appeared in the Federal Register. I do not know the reason for the delay, but it seems unusual, so my best guess is that it has significance.

Bizarre

Go Daddy.com runs a domain name aftermarket auction. Currently, they are auctioning off the domain name SOCIAL-SECURITY-DISABILITY-ATTORNEY-FLORIDA.COM. The current bid is $10, but the auction ends at 10:23 A.M. PDT today.

And by the way, I was not looking for this or anything like it. It came up on a search for "Social Security" on Google Blog Search.

Why Service At Social Security Has Gone To Hell

Service has gone to hell at Social Security since the Bush Administration took office. Why? It is all a matter of budget priorities.

Social Security's operating budget for the 2001 fiscal year (FY) was $7, 223 million. That was the operating budget for the year in which the Bush Administration took office. For the current FY Social Security's operating budget is $9,864 million, which is a 36.6% increase. Of course, you have to allow for inflation. Between October 2000 and July 2008 the inflation rate was 26.4%. This means that there was a net gain in Social Security's operating budget during the Bush Administration after inflation of about 10.2%.

As of September 2000, the closest date to when the Bush Administration took office for which I can find figures, Social Security had 64,521 employees. As of March 2008, the most recent date for which figures are available, Social Security had 60,465 employees, a 6.3% decrease.

After inflation Social Security's operating budget increased by 10.2% over about eight years, while the number of employees decreased by 6.3% over about the same time period.

The extra money appropriated to Social Security plus the money saved by not replacing employees must have gone to contractors. If that money had not gone to contractors I can make a rough guess that the Social Security Administration would now have about 10,000 to 15,000 more employees than it has and I can say with certainty that Social Security would be giving much better service to the public.

It is all a matter of priorities.

Poll

Free Web poll for your Web site - freepolls.com