More On Astrue As Poet

There may be a new book of Michael Astrue's poetry coming out before long. In November 2008, Astrue's alter ego, A.M. Juster, was expecting to complete a translation of poetry for the University of Pennsylvania Press by the end of the following year as well as a new book of original poetry to be called A Midsummer Night's Hangover.

Do not expect a new book immediately. The editing process could easily take six months or more even if Astrue was able to submit one or both by the end of 2009. I do not thing that an academic press would be rushing a volume of poetry into print.

By the way, Astrue's tastes in poetry go well beyond his preferred style for writing poetry, formal verse. He admires T.S. Eliot's free verse and adores the work of Richard Hugo and Linda Pastan.

Dog Tags And Social Security

Republicans have been making many outrageous claims about the health care reform package that is pending in Congress. Republican scare tactics are not new. This sort of thing happened when Social Security was introduced. This is from the Social Security Administration's website:

The publisher William Randolph Hearst was a fervent enemy of President Roosevelt and the New Deal. All the newspapers in the Hearst chain were expected to regularly publish unfavorable stories about New Deal programs. On the eve of the 1936 presidential election Hearst sought to undermine support for Social Security with allegations that workers would be required to wear "dog-tags" with their Social Security number and would be forced to fill-out questionnaires probing for personal information. In fact, neither allegation was true. However, the "dog-tag" story did have a basis in fact.

When considering ways to assign Social Security numbers, one proposal was to issue metal nameplates, not unlike military "dog-tags." Commissioner Altmeyer vetoed this idea as soon as he heard about it. This did not, however, stop the Hearst syndicate from reporting it as fact. During the early discussion of the metal nameplate idea, one company eager for this potential government business (the Addressograph Corp.) went so far as to prepare a sample I.D. tag in Commissioner Altmeyer's name. Altmeyer kept this sample "dog-tag" in his desk drawer throughout his career with SSA, and he donated it to SSA after his retirement. So the one and only Social Security "dog-tag" ever issued is now on display in the History Room at SSA headquarters in Baltimore.

Senator Dorgan Wants Answers!

KQCD-TV in Dickinson, ND reports that Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) wants to know why Social Security has barely made a dent in its backlogs even after receiving an additional $2.5 billion.

I can give Senator Dorgan the answer more bluntly than Social Security will. The $2.5 billion has made a noticeable dent in the backlogs but mostly that money prevented things from getting much, much worse. Rapid improvement will cost much more money than the agency is getting or will get. Social Security's budget situation was so dire before Democrats gained control of Congress in 2007 that it is going to take huge sums of money and some time for the agency to dig its way out of the backlogs.

Budget Postions Open At ODAR

Social Security's Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR) is currently advertising openings for Associate Commissioner and Deputy Associate Commissioner for Budget, Facilities & Security.

COLA Predicted To Be 0.1%

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is predicting that the Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) for Social Security benefits that will come into effect as of December 2010 will be 0.1%. If that is the way it ends up, it would hardly be worth the trouble of implementing.

Outing A Poet

Michael Astrue, the Commissioner of Social Security, has made no secret of his interest in poetry. I received an anonymous e-mail from a reader who believes that the Commissioner is an award-winning poet who publishes under the pen name of A.M. Juster. There is conclusive evidence that the reader is correct. A.M. Juster is an anagram of M.J. Astrue. There is a recording of an interview with A.M. Juster available online as well as a photo which includes A.M. Juster. The voice and the face are Astrue's.

Michael Astrue has not gone to great lengths to hide Juster's true identity nor does he have any reason to. The awards are real and meaningful. Books of Astrue's poetry have been published not by some vanity press but by the University of Evansville Press and the University of Pennsylvania Press.
The Commentary page on Juster's website, written by "Rhina Espaillat" (another pen name?), includes this description of Juster:

He is fairly sunny about other people and the world, in fact, not because he is blind to flaws, but because reason and maturity keep his expectations modest. He doesn't use satire to settle scores with "Them," but to attack, with self-deprecating humor, the traits, customs and practices that need attacking in all of us. He doesn't use lyric poetry to bewail lost hopes, wallow in envy, or complain of having been cheated by life. His keenest dissatisfactions are reserved for those systems and forms of thought that fail to put the human first and give it due weight, like those bureaucrats in "Moscow Zoo" who condone the murder of millions because it fulfills an ideological need.

Here is a epigram by Juster:

Rationale
Poems are best
when compressed

I detest
the rest.

Extended Service Team

A press release from Social Security:

Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, today announced that the agency’s first Extended Service Team (EST) is open for business in Little Rock, Arkansas. The Little Rock EST will make disability decisions for state Disability Determinations Services (DDSs) that are most adversely affected by the flood of new initial disability claims resulting from the economic downturn and from counterproductive furloughs of employees at the state level. Later this year, Social Security will open additional ESTs in Madison, Mississippi; Roanoke, Virginia; and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The ESTs are in states that have a history of high quality and productivity, as well as the capacity to hire and train significant numbers of additional employees.

“The strategy behind ESTs builds on our success with National Hearing Centers, where cases are handled electronically from all over the country,” Commissioner Astrue said. “These centralized units have reduced the hearings backlog and improved processing times at some of the hardest-hit hearing offices. This approach clearly works and extending it in this way can help us meet the challenge of unprecedented growth in our disability workloads.”

Social Security expects to receive more than 3.3 million applications for disability benefits this fiscal year (FY), about 700,000 more than in FY 2008. In addition, more than a dozen states are furloughing federally-funded state workers who make disability decisions for Social Security. The combination of increased workloads and state furloughs has resulted in a growing backlog of initial disability applications in state DDSs.

“More Americans than ever are turning to us for help,” said Commissioner Astrue. “I am grateful that Governor Beebe bucked the trend and recognized the value of more of our federally-funded jobs in his state. The opening of the Arkansas EST and our other planned expansions in Mississippi, Virginia, and Oklahoma will significantly benefit disabled workers and their families as well as create new job opportunities to these states during difficult economic times.”

Sunshine For Social Security

From Social Security:

Welcome to the Conversation on Open Government!

We’re looking for your input as we create our first Open Government Plan. Please let us know your specific ideas on how we can become more transparent, participatory and collaborative. We’ll accept your ideas on our Plan outline until March 19, 2010. We will post our Plan by April 7, 2010. Thanks to everyone who has already contributed to this dialogue. We’ve received great ideas on how you would like to do business with us, what information you would like to see on our webpage, and how we can make our operations and programs more efficient. Thank you in advance for your participation in this discussion.