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Will FICA Tax Cut Be Continued?

     The FICA tax that supports the Social Security trust funds has been reduced from 6.2% to 4.2% for the past year as a means of stimulating the economy. The difference has been made up by general revenues. President Obama has proposed that the reduction be continued for another year. The number two Republican in the Senate, Jon Kyl, has expressed opposition to the President's proposal saying that the tax cut did not stimulate the economy. His opposition apparently stems from another part of the President's proposal that would pay for the one year extension of the tax cut by increasing taxes on those with incomes over $1 million. Kyl believes that tax increase would undermine the economic recovery.

     I would prefer that the FICA tax revert to 6.2%. Delinking the trust funds from payroll taxes has to be bad for Social Security in the long run. However, if you were trying to caricature Republican positions you could not do better than what Senator Kyl is saying: A tax increase for ordinary Americans is of no consequence for the economy while a tax increase on the wealthiest Americans would be terrible for the economy.

An Astroturfer Comes To Social Security News?

     Below is a post made by Obshellums in response to a post I had made about Congressional Republicans who were expressing concern after the horrendous report of mentally disabled individuals being locked in a basement while their representative payees stole their Social Security disability checks:

SSA's hearing offices or at least mgmt at the one I worked at was annoyed if an employee pressed the issue that incorrect payee, recipient might be getting checks by virtue of an outdated or improper designation. I was accused of "denigrating" co-workers many times when I tried to bring old & wrong recipient and/or address info to managements' attention. Check on this a year from now & you'll see little to no improvement. SSA's ODAR is an elite and badly supervised part of SSA that cruises along ineffectively and expensively because there is no oversight that benefits taxpayers and claimants, just a subservient mind-set to pamper judges, overpaid do-little attorneys and too much middle management. Collect overpayments? Concern themselves with payee info? No, they pretend to "care about privacy of claimants--ask no questions about payees" but really that just makes their work easier. Once they decide to pay or not pay, their work is done. Looking at all that other recipient-relationship, etc., residence info might "hurt thier numbers" by slowing them down a little and hey, the money keeps pouring in to pay out so, why stress?

     Let's go through and outline what this person is saying:

• I used to work at a hearing office.
• Management at that hearing office was annoyed if an employee pressed the issue of an improper payee getting payment due to an outdated or improper designation.
• I was accused of "denigrating" co-workers many times when I tried to bring old & wrong recipient and/or address info to managements' attention.
• The conditions that I saw will not change because the hearing offices are an elite and badly supervised part of SSA that cruises along ineffectively and expensively because there is no oversight that benefits taxpayers and claimants, just a subservient mind-set to pamper judges, overpaid do-little attorneys and too much middle management.
• Hearing office management pretends to "care about privacy of claimants--ask no questions about payees" but really that just makes their work easier.
• Looking at all that other recipient-relationship, etc., residence info might "hurt their numbers" by slowing them down a little.
• The money keeps pouring in to pay out so, why stress? 

     This may sound like a plausible grassroots report of malfeasance if you don't work at Social Security or deal with it first hand. However, if you do, the post is nonsensical, almost gibberish. Social Security's hearing offices are not responsible for policing representative payees. They recommend that payees be appointed. On very rare occasions they adjudicate whether a payee is needed but, in general, they are just not involved, not because they are poorly managed but because others at Social Security, mostly those who work in field offices, have that responsibility.
     Other items in the post also ring a false note. Pretending to care about the privacy of claimants as a reason not to do something about representative payee problems? Social Security is obsessive about privacy for good reason. It is expected of them. However, it is hard to imagine privacy being given as a reason for failing to act on a representative payee problem. Dealing with "recipient-relationship" and "residence" issues would cause delay? What is the poster talking about? Why is the poster making comments about the hearing offices being "elite", "badly supervised", "ineffective" and "expensive." Why is the poster going out of his or her way to talk about "pampered" judges and "do-little attorneys" or to suggest that money is "pouring" in or out? I could go on but why bother. This sounds like something that Newt Gingrich would have written.
     This is not the first time I have seen this sort of post. There have been a number that rang a false note. This is just the most obvious example. Prior examples have put forth the notion that Social Security is badly overstaffed and ought to be given lower appropriations.
     I cannot imagine this post having been written by someone who used to work at Social Security. So, who did write it and why? There are "trolls" on the internet who like to write things that are wildly provocative in order to draw a response. Could this have been written by a "troll" who jut wants to annoy and provoke? Maybe, but I doubt it. Why be a troll when you don't understand enough to even troll effectively or to understand the outrage you provoke?
     Obviously, the poster has a political agenda. He or she is pretending to have been a Social Security employee. He or she has little actual knowledge of operations at Social Security. I can think of two possibilities here:

• This person could be a tea partier who has gotten carried away.
• This person could be an employee or contractor of a right wing "astroturf" group. "Astroturfing" is faux grassroots action. Astroturfers pretend to be concerned citizens but are actually paid for by corporations or wealthy individuals, such as the Koch brothers.

     I may flatter myself to think that some minion of the Koch brothers would actually care about this obscure blog but the post is just so weird and so full of abusive, politically charged language that it is hard for me to see it as anything other than astroturfing.

Hearing Backlog Increases

     From the Fort Wayne Journal:

Anyone filing for Social Security disability benefits expects a wait.

Hoosiers appealing their cases in the Fort Wayne office have been waiting shorter amounts of time since the start of 2010, but an analysis by a Syracuse University research center suggests that might not be true much longer.

Data through September show the backlog nationally has risen 9.3 percent from what it was a year ago, the fifth straight quarter the number of cases has increased, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a Syracuse University organization that gathers, researches and distributes public data.

     And what happened a year ago this month? Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives and more members in the Senate. An increase in the backlog may not have been a Republican goal but they are largely indifferent to it, blaming it on government inefficiency.

Fourth Volume Of Caro's Biography Of LBJ Due Out In May 2012

Lyndon Johnson is a major figure in Social Security history -- probably the most important figure apart from Roosevelt. Under his presidency:

• Medicare was added to the Social Security Act. Social Security was responsible for the initial implementation of Medicare.
• Social Security was added to the unified federal budget setting the stage for the administrative funding problems that the agency has had in recent years. 
• The definition of disability was changed in 1965 so that there is only a one year duration requirement. Previously, there had been essentially a requirement of permanency. 
• The definition of disability was also changed in other ways quite unfavorable to claimants in 1967.
• The worker's compensation offset was added.
• Disabled widows benefits were added.

     I think the best three non-fiction books I have read in the last 25 years have been The Path to Power, Means of Ascent and Master of the Senate, the first three volumes of Robert Caro's monumental biography of LBJ. I am thrilled that the the fourth volume, The Passage to Power, is due out on May 1, 2012. If you have never delved into this series, you have a treat awaiting you. Johnson was both appalling and admirable but always fascinating. I hesitate to say this but Johnson may have been even more interesting a person than Lincoln and that is saying a lot! Think that Johnson's time as a Congressional aide couldn't have been interesting? Think again. It was unbelievable. Caro is an extraordinary biographer with an inscredible subject. This volume will deal with Johnson's time in office and all those major Social Security decisions

     It does not matter what your political views are. You do not have to be a person who is ordinarily interested in history or biography. These books are a hell of a read.

Grand Jury Investigation in West Virginia

     The Wall Street Journal is reporting that a federal grand jury is investigating whether former Social Security Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) David Daughtry received improper payments in exchange for awarding disability benefits. According to the report, Social Security's Inspector General is looking into a "series" of ALJs who award benefits in a high number of cases.
     Daughtry awarded benefits to virtually every claimant whose case he heard. Certainly, this would have included the cases of at least several attorneys and a fair number of unrepresented claimants.  I don't recommend any sort of bribery but why would someone even be tempted to bribe an ALJ to approve a disability claim if the ALJ would approve the claim even without being bribed? Why use a sledgehammer to break down a door that is not only unlocked but which is standing wide open? Of course, these is a suggestion that there was some funny business about the assignment of cases to ALJs in that office and there could be impropriety there. Still, count me as skeptical that they will ever come up with evidence of any serious criminal offense here. Social Security has a long list of problems but corruption is very, very low on that list.

     One interesting aspect of the report is that the Wall Street Journal has used the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to obtain a list of total fees paid in 2010 to attorneys who represent Social Security claimants. One attorney that ALJ Daughtry dealt with, Eric Conn, ranked third in the nation on this list with fees of $3.8 million. Presumably, the Wall Street Journal will release more of this list in the future.

Happy Thanksgiving

And let me once again give a link to Art Buchwald's classic explanation of Le jour de Merci Donnant.

Like Déjà Vu

     From WBAL-TV in Baltimore:

Delays in Social Security disability benefit payouts have left many Marylanders with questions -- and without money. ...

A WBAL-TV 11 News I-Team investigation in September evoked both anger and frustration from viewers regarding a long application process, long wait and, in some cases, denial....

One week after the I-Team intervened, Social Security approved Davis' application and deposited $59,391 of back pay into his bank account....

Among those who contacted the I-Team included Jeffrey Smith, of Parkville, who suffers from Crohn's disease complicated by type 1 diabetes. The illness ended his 26-year career in retail.

Waiting 2½ years for Social Security disability benefits sent him into bankruptcy and put his home in jeopardy....

When the I-Team checked on the status of Smith's case, it was like déjà vu, Weiner said. Pay day came soon after the I-Team's call to Social Security.

"He contacted me at 3:30 on Monday, and at 1:15 Wednesday morning, the check was direct deposited -- $36,000," Smith said. ...

Physicians who had worked at Social Security's campus in Woodlawn, evaluating new claims from across the country, said they also had a story to tell.

Dr. Neil Novin, a surgeon for more than 40 years, was one of dozens of doctors working part-time reviewing disability claims -- until Social Security fired him. ... 

"Americans who are applying for disability insurance are not getting a fair shake anymore," Novin said. Social Security called that claim "baseless."

Novin said Social Security fired him for opposing pay and policy changes, which meant doctors were no longer assigned cases based on their area of expertise."When cardiologists are evaluating people with back problems and orthopedic surgeons are evaluating people with hearing problems, that ain't kosher," Novin said. "You've been paying Social Security dues for all your life, and if you have an injury, you're entitled to it. You ought to get it and the decision should be by people who are knowledgeable."Dr. Francis Clark, an orthopedic surgeon who also worked part-time at Social Security, said he was among a handful of doctors who quit. When asked what the general sense is among the doctors who left, Clark said, "frustration."