If you wondered where the recent Wall Street Journal articles came from, well, here is your answer. Is this person on to a huge scandal or just someone with a huge axe to grind? Why were the local papers not interested in this story? Why was Social Security's Office of Inspector General apparently not interested in this story until part of it appeared in the Wall Street Journal? Why was only the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal interested in the story? Why, for that matter, is the Wall Street Journal staying away from some of the elements of this alleged scandal?
May 31, 2011
New Plan
Presenting what he called a revolutionary plan to slash the nation’s mountain of debt, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) today proposed eliminating the Social Security program in its entirety and replacing it with Groupons.
“Instead of waiting each month for a check from Social Security, America’s elderly will receive valuable Groupons for everything they need, from Ramen noodles to cat food to caskets,” Mr. Ryan said in an appearance on Fox News.
Adding that Groupons would also help provide for elders’ medical needs, the congressman illustrated his point by holding up a Groupon offering 30 percent off on open-heart surgery in Cincinnati.
Moving on from Social Security, Mr. Ryan also proposed replacing Medicare with a new program in which seniors are shot at by Predator drones.
May 30, 2011
Was It A Bad Thing That The Muskogee Man Was Trying To Work?
From The Oklahoman newspaper:
Sen. Tom Coburn wants a meeting with the top Social Security Administration investigator to discuss the increase in people receiving disability payments, saying he's concerned that some may be using the program as “an extension of unemployment benefits.” ...
Coburn, R-Muskogee, said in an interview the fund may go broke before that because “growth in this program has been horrendous.” ...
Coburn said he has some personal experience: A man he hired in Muskogee to do some yard work told him that he was collecting Social Security disability payments. Coburn said Social Security workers from around the country have contacted him to tell of abuses in the program. ...
Coburn and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, sent a letter to the inspector general of the Social Security Administration saying they were concerned that some judges were approving appeals at unrealistic rates.
“Given the looming collapse of (the Social Security Disability Income program), it is imperative that disability claims are properly examined to ensure that only those who are lawfully entitled to benefits receive them,” the senators wrote.
“Individuals cannot be allowed to exploit SSDI, transforming it into a supplemental source of unemployment income with enormous and crippling costs to taxpayers.”
The senators' request followed a story in The Wall Street Journal about a judge in West Virginia who approves nearly every one of the appeals he hears from people who were first denied disability benefits.
May 29, 2011
May 28, 2011
"Sheer Panic"
Social Security's reaction to its budget situation? "Sheer panic", according to Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue.
What An Idea!
Jagadeesh Gokhale of the right wing Cato Institute makes what is, for him, a very reasonable plea -- "simply wipe out the [Social Security] Trust Funds entirely." Who could object to that?
Remember Russell Rowell?
You have to contrast the speed with which Social Security took action against Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Daugherty to their foot-dragging in the case of ALJ Russell Rowell. Daugherty may have exercised his discretion as an Administrative Law Judge in a questionable way but at least he did not combine that with abusing and humiliating vulnerable American citizens
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