Democrats Again Criticize Republican Budget

From a new press release issued by Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee:

Republicans are defending their proposed cuts to the Social Security Administration (SSA) budget by seeking to downplay the impact of reducing the SSA’s spending level to $10.7 billion this year.

The facts are clear: this represents a 9.3 percent decrease from Fiscal Year 2010 spending levels of $11.8 billion. It would leave the already cash-strapped agency with fewer resources with which to process claims for seniors and people with disabilities. In fact, SSA says that the GOP proposal is equivalent to up to four weeks of furloughs at the agency.

The Republican budget plan calls for $10.7 billion in overall spending for SSA in 2011, $1.7 billion less than the Social Security Administration needs to fulfill its obligations. They claim their budget represents a 1 percent cut from last year to SSA – but to get there they ignore more than $600 million in additional cuts to the reserve account and funding budgeted for a National Computer Center. The math is simple:

• $10,675,500,000 in general operating expense funding for the Social Security Administration
• $485,000,000 for continuing disability reviews and redeterminations
• $161,000,000 in collected fees
• $500,000,000 cut to Social Security Administration’s reserve account
• $118,000,000 cut to what has been budgeted for the National Computer Center

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• $10.7 billion TOTAL

44% Of Social Security Beneficiaries Think It's Already Privatized

There was a town hall meeting at which a constituent told his Congressman to "keep you government hands off my Medicare." It turns out that many feel the same way about Social Security. 44% of Social Security recipients report that they have not used a government social program.

Disability Programs Still On GAO High Risk List

Each year the Government Accountability Office (GAO) releases a list of what it considers "high risk" programs that need attention. "Improving and Modernizing Federal Disability Programs" remains on this year's list. Here is GAO's explanation of why these are on the list:

Designated a high-risk area in 2003, federal disability programs remain in need of modernization. Almost 200 federal programs provide a wide range of services and supports, resulting in a patchwork of policies and programs without a unified strategy or set of national goals. Further, disability programs emphasize medical conditions in assessing work incapacity without adequate consideration of work opportunities afforded by advances in medicine, technology, and job demands. Beyond these broad concerns, the largest disability programs-managed by the Social Security Administration (SSA), Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and Department of Defense (DOD)-are experiencing growing workloads, creating challenges to making timely and accurate decisions.

More Criticism For Republican Budget Proposal

From a press release issued by Senator Daniel Inouye, the Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee:

The Republican [budget] proposal would force the SSA [Social Security Administration] to cut more than 3,500 staff from SSA’s 1,300 field offices, state disability determination services, and disability hearing offices and may ultimately result in furloughs of two to four weeks for about 50,000 Federal and state employees. As a result, the millions of Americans filing for retirement and disability benefits this year will wait longer for the benefits they’ve earned, backlogs of those with pending disability claims and hearings could reach record levels, and waiting times at field offices and SSA’s 1-800 number would increase dramatically.

Binder & Binder Wins Trademark Suit

From the American Bar Association Journal:

The law firm Binder & Binder has been awarded $292,000 in a trademark infringement suit against a competitor that paid Google to have its ad appear when people searched for the Binder name.

U.S. District Judge George King of the Central District of California ruled that the Disability Group Inc. had violated the Binder law firm’s registered trademark, and had engaged in false advertising and unfair competition.

The ABA Journal got one thing wrong. The Binder & Binder entities that won this case are not law firms.

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Something Doesn't Add Up

From House Ways and Means Committee Democrats:

The 2011 budget plan presented this week by the House Republican Majority strips $1.7 billion away from the Social Security Administration (SSA) for the remainder of the year, a cut so drastic that SSA would need to impose the equivalent of a month of furloughs. ...

House Republicans have proposed a $1.7 billion reduction in SSA funding for the remainder of 2011. That includes:

* Cutting SSA’s operating budget by over a billion dollars (8.5%) below what’s needed for 2011. That level is $506 million below what SSA actually spent in 2010 to process claims and operate Social Security offices.

* Cutting an additional $500 million by draining SSA’s reserve account. Most of the money in reserve is already allocated for this year’s expenses and the rest is budgeted for next year’s planned information technology improvements.

* Rescinding an additional $118 million from funds already set aside to build a new National Computer Center, which could delay equipping this mission-critical project.

House Ways and Means Committee Republicans countered with this:

Democrats today made outrageous claims that the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) offices “would shut down” due to a proposed administrative budget reduction, a claim which is false and based on hypothetical scenarios. Despite the Democrats’ irresponsible scare tactics, the facts show that the Republicans' proposed one percent cut will not harm seniors’ benefits. Furthermore, any decisions to furlough workers – another highly misleading claim made by the Democrats – would result only if that decision were made by the Administration.

Here is a look at the facts.

Wrong Numbers:
The Democrats’ claim of $1.7 billion in cuts is based on the President’s budget request from last year.

One Percent:
The proposed 2011 budget plan from House Republicans would reduce the SSA’s administrative budget by only one percent ($125 million) compared to the current level.

In point of fact, the Republican statement is flatly wrong unless they have already altered their proposed budget for this fiscal year. The Republicans own budget summary shows them proposing a $625 million reduction for Social Security from FY 2010 and a $997.6 million reduction from the President's requested FY 2011 budget. That is a lot more than 1%, however you look at it. Republicans do not dispute that they would take away all money needed to construct a new National Computer Center for Social Security at the same time as they criticize the agency for not constructing the National Computer Center faster.

AARP Backs Giving More Time To Withdraw Claims

From Janet Novack's column in Forbes:

AARP [American Association of Retired Persons], the 40-million member seniors’ lobby, has asked the Social Security Administration to give a break to current retirees who want to pay back the benefits they’ve received to earn higher future benefit checks. ...

In mid-January, AARP representatives met with Social Security officials and said they did not know if they would take a position on the rule change. But on Feb. 7, the last day for comment, the AARP finally weighed in on the side of the seniors. It asked the government to give those who are already receiving Social Security a full 12 months—until Dec. 8, 2011—to withdraw their Social Security applications and pay back their benefits without interest. The letter, signed by David Certner, the AARP’s legislative counsel, said the organization generally agrees with the intent of the new rule but believes “that equity and fairness” require that those who took early benefits more than a year before the abrupt rule change be given an opportunity to withdraw their initial Social Security applications and repay the money.