Enter The Social Security News March Madness Bracket Challenge

At the extreme risk of embarrassing myself once again, I have set up a Social Security News NCAA March Madness bracket group. Click here to enter.

The password for our group is:

SSA

There is no prize for winning except for the recognition you receive here. Social Security employees should not enter the competition while on the clock.

Chances Of Government Shutdown Increase?

From David Rogers, writing at Politico:

Tuesday’s breakdown in Republican discipline weakens Speaker John Boehner’s hand in White House budget talks and raises the chances of a government shutdown next month unless he and President Barack Obama greatly step up their game.

Fifty-four Republicans broke ranks with Boehner, leaving him suddenly dependent on Democrats to win House approval of a must-pass three-week spending bill to keep the government operating past Friday. Tea-party-backed freshmen contributed to the embarrassment, but an equal force was a set of more veteran conservatives — some with their own political agenda but also more willing to risk an immediate fight with the White House.

“I think we have to have a fight. I think this is the moment,” Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) told POLITICO prior to the vote. “Things don’t change around here until they have to, and Republicans ought to draw a line in the sand.”

Brian Beutler, writing at TPM argues that the defection of many House Republicans increases the power of House Democrats.

House Democrats Press For Adequate Social Security Budget

From a press release:

Today 125 members of the House Democratic Caucus sent a letter to Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) urging him to restore reasonable funding levels to the Social Security Administration (SSA) in the House Republican 2011 budget to avoid shutting down the agency for the equivalent of a month this year.

Least Discussed And Most Muddled

From The Economist:

Thomas Scully has a busy law office in Lake County, Indiana. He mainly practices disability law, with good reason. Lake County is home to steel mills. Workers have aching backs and hands warped by machinery. Mr Scully helps them win Social Security Disability Insurance (DI), which provides cash and, after two years, access to Medicare, government-subsidised health insurance meant mainly for the elderly. DI is not supposed to be a safety net for the jobless. “I tell clients”, Mr Scully explains, “disability insurance is not unemployment insurance.” But they should be forgiven for being confused.

Politicians like to deride expensive programmes. DI may be the least discussed and most muddled. The programme is severely strained. The number of awards has spiked in the downturn, rising 28% since 2007. This surge follows decades of growth. DI accounted for about 10% of Social Security spending in 1989 but 18% by 2009. This is not because beneficiaries are bending any rules; the real problem is that the rules are a mess.

The article goes on to make a classic argument about the Social Security program which I will paraphrase: "It's much easier to get disability benefits now than it was in the late 1970s and early 1980s; therefore the program has run amok." A more sensible take would be to first examine what was going on in the late 1970s and early 1980s to determine whether that was some golden age. It was not. Disability standards were preposterously tight in those days, by far tighter than anything before or since. The problem is not what is going on now; the problem was what was going on then, but that does not make for an interesting story.

Of course, the author is right in saying that discussions of Social Security disability benefits are frequently muddled.

New CR Passes House Of Representatives

The House of Representatives has passed a new Continuing Resolution (CR) that will keep Social Security and other federal agencies going for another three weeks, to April 8. This is likely to be passed by the Senate and signed by the President. This CR continues the pain for Social Security since it will only fund the agency at last year's rate, a real problem for an agency with a rapidly growing workload.

By the time this new CR runs out, the federal government is likely to be up against its debt ceiling which will add additional pressure to the negotiations.

Obama's Advisers Split On Social Security

From The Hill:

Social Security reform is splitting President Obama’s economic and political advisers. ...

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling and Sperling’s deputy, Jason Furman — leading figures in the president’s economic team — are pressing Obama to cut Social Security benefits if necessary, say sources familiar with their positions.

But Obama’s political team, led by David Axelrod, David Plouffe and Jim Messina, are urging the president to understand that backing benefit cuts could prove disastrous to his 2012 reelection hopes, sources say. ...

White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage said, "The notion that the president’s team is divided on our approach to this issue is flatly untrue. ..."

No Overtime Due To Budget Stalemate

From the Federal Times:

The Social Security Administration has canceled overtime for most employees, effective immediately, according to a message from the agency's top finance official.

The only exception is for overtime "directly related" to life, safety and preservation of property, Deputy Commissioner Michael Gallagher said in a Friday e-mail. The decision was the result of discussions earlier that day between Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue and the Office of Management and Budget, Gallagher said. ...

Based on the Obama administration's fiscal 2011 budget request, for example, the agency expected about 3,200 work years to come from overtime, versus some 68,800 from full-time equivalents.

Service Slipping

From today's New York Times:

Unsure from week to week how much money Congress will provide them as the two parties battle over the budget for the rest of this year, federal officials say many agencies have been operating in chaos, confusion and uncertainty. ...

Michael J. Astrue, the commissioner of Social Security, said the agency had cut back distribution of annual earnings and benefit statements and had suspended plans to open eight hearing offices that would tackle a huge backlog of appeals by people seeking disability benefits.

Like most of the government, the Social Security Administration has been financed for more than five months with short-term spending bills known as continuing resolutions. Congress is expected to pass another three-week spending bill this week that will continue to pare back financing from last year’s level.

“Because of the uncertainty of our budget,” Mr. Astrue said, “I have had to make choices that will begin to erode service.”