He's Back At It

Eric Conn's "campaign" to be appointed to the Social Security Advisory Board started in 2009. He's back at it in 2011:

Lawyer Eric C. Conn's first step in trying to get President Barack Obama to appoint him to the Social Security Advisory Board wasn't to contact his congressman or senator.

No, Conn's first move was to hire 83-year-old Bluegrass music legend Ralph Stanley to perform in a music video with a rewrite of the classic bluegrass song “Man of Constant Sorrow.”

His second move was to team Stanley with “the Obama Girl,” Amber Lee Ettinger — whose 2008 video, “I've got a crush on Obama,” went viral and was seen by more than 15 million viewers — and Jesco White, the “Dancing Outlaw” who gained notoriety after a PBS documentary aired on his life.

“The main purpose of the video is to get appointed to the … board,” Conn, who handles Social Security disability cases, said in a recent interview. “… Of course, if there is some collateral benefit for the (law) practice, that's great too.”

The Drumbeat Gets Louder

From CBS News:

With many expecting President Obama to endorse a fiscally moderate path forward in his State of the Union address next week - and perhaps call for changes to Social Security in the process -- progressives are urging the president to protect entitlement programs. ...

In an interview with Bloomberg Television that airs Friday night, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine said that Social Security "might all fit within a rubric of trying to deal with deficit issues and deal with them in an appropriate way that doesn't choke off the economic recovery."

Kaine said he has not read a draft of the speech, but he said the president will address the deficit "significantly" in his State of the Union speech -- and even more so when he delivers a budget to Congress in February. ...

In light of all this, 33 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus sent a letter to Mr. Obama today, the Washington Post's Greg Sargent reports, urging him to promise to protect Social Security in his State of the Union address. ...

Potential 2012 Republican presidential contender Tim Pawlenty published an op-ed for the Washington Post today calling for dramatic entitlement reforms.

"Given no other choice, I believe a bipartisan consensus could be created around ideas such as means-testing the cost-of-living increase in Social Security benefits

Gunfire At Chicago Field Office

From yesterday's Chicago Tribune:

Chicago police are investigating a shooting incident at a Social Security office on the Southwest Side late this morning.

The shooting, in which there were no injuries, was the result of a security guard discharging his weapon in the office 8658 S. Sacramento Ave., said Chicago Police News Affairs Officer John Mirabelli.

The incident took place at 11:16 a.m., Mirabelli said.

Officials from Federal Protective Services, the agency assigned to guard federal facilities, said the guard was responding to a concern about a "confrontational and threatening individual," in the building, said Chris Ortman, a Federal Protective Services spokesman.

As the guard was responding, his gun discharged. Neither the suspect or the guard was injured as a result of the shooting, said Ortman.

Little Support For Benefit Cuts

From the New York Times:

As President Obama and Congress brace to battle over how to reduce chronic annual budget deficits, Americans overwhelmingly say that in general they prefer cutting government spending to paying higher taxes, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. ...

Nearly two-thirds of Americans choose higher payroll taxes for Medicare and Social Security over reduced benefits in either program. And asked to choose among cuts to Medicare, Social Security or the nation’s third-largest spending program — the military — a majority by a large margin said cut the Pentagon.

While Americans are near-unanimous in calling deficits a problem — a “very serious” problem, say 7 out of 10 — a majority believes it should not be necessary for them to pay higher taxes to bridge the shortfall between what the government spends and what it takes in.

Some Budget Ideas

The Republican Study Committee has released its budget proposals. Here are a couple of highlights:

• Reduce federal discretionary spending to 2006 levels -- and hold it there for ten years
• Cut the federal workforce by 15% by only hiring one worker for every two who leaves until the 15% reduction is achieved

Can you imagine the Social Security Administration with 9,000 fewer employees? If this were applied to Social Security, it would be impossible for the agency to fulfill its statutory obligations as they stand now, much less as they increase over the next few years as the baby boomer generation ages. Makes perfect sense if you hate Social Security and think that most of the country agrees with you.

Democratic Members Of House Social Security Subcommittee Announced

The Democrats have announced their members for the House Social Security Subcommittee. This is the full lineup for the Subcommittee:

Republicans
Kevin Brady, TX, Chairman
Pat Tiberi, OH
Aaron Schock, IL
Erik Paulsen, MN
Rick Berg, ND
Adrian Smith, NE

Democrats:
Xavier Becerra, CA, Ranking Member
Lloyd Doggett, TX
Shelley Berkley, NV
Fortney "Pete" Stark, CA

Interview With The Commissioner

The Washington Post is running an interview with Michael Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security. Here are a couple of excerpts:

I'm a big believer in trying to speak in my own voice. Maybe it's a little colorful, but at the end of the day employees will know that I'm really trying to talk to them. I can be in Miami or Tucson and employees will come up to me and say one of the things that I appreciate about your broadcast is that I know that you actually wrote the material - it sounds like you. ...

I think one of things that you would get unanimity from my executives is I run what lawyers call "hot bench." I read the materials in advance, and I don't bother with things that I see being done right. Instead, I try to get to the heart of what the hard issues are and to make sure that they're on track.

What The Insiders Want

From Dean Baker writing at the Huffington Post:

The insiders in Washington really really want to cut Social Security, and they are prepared to say or do anything to do it. Among the latest lines is that they want to make Social Security more "progressive." This sort of rhetoric appeared in a report from the liberal Center for American Progress (CAP) in a plan that proposes substantial cuts in benefits. ...

It would lead to substantial reductions in Social Security benefits for people who earned an average of $60,000 or $70,000 during their working lifetimes. ...