Dec 4, 2012

Picketing At Social Security Office Scheduled For December 5

     From Federal Daily News:
A coalition of labor groups and public interest organizations plans to conduct informational pickets this week outside Social Security Administration offices in 22 states.
According to media alert from the American Federation of Government Employees, the effort will involve “thousands of Social Security employees at more than 100 Social Security offices across the country and representatives from a 200-plus member organization coalition…”
The event, labeled “an effort to save Social Security and Medicare from extinction,” is slated to occur Dec. 5 from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. ...
“Cutting Social Security’s budget or making modifications to Medicare and Medicaid should not be part of a grand bargain to reduce the deficit,” Witold Skwierczynski, president of AFGE’s National Council of Social Security Field Operations Locals (NCSSFOL), said in a statement.
AGFE said that an NCSSFOL study determined that sequestration, if implemented, would require SSA to reduce its budget by 5.5 percent, leading to a hiring freeze across most of the agency, and the loss of more than 3,500 SSA and Disability Determination Service state employees. ...
Members of the coalition include the Alliance for Retired Americans, Social Security Works, MoveOn.org, Common Cause, Gray Panthers, American Federation of Teachers, National Council of Negro Women, NAACP, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare and other unions and groups. 
According to AFGE, the picketing will take place at SSA offices in Alaska, Alabama, California, Florida, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

Dec 3, 2012

A Good Summary Of The Fiscal Cliff Situation

     From Daniel Gross writing in The Daily Beast:
The reality should be seeping in to viewers of the Sunday shows that the Republicans don’t have a game plan. They don’t have a single, specific proposal to avoid the fiscal cliff. And even if they had one, they don’t have a roadmap to get there. They keep expecting Obama to come back with something more to their liking, which they’d also reject. Many Republicans literally don’t understand what is happening. Sen. Charles Grassley tweeted over the weekend that he was frustrated that President Obama hadn’t embraced the recommendation of the Bowles-Simpson Commission. Apparently, he is one of the many people in Washington who doesn’t understand that Bowles-Simpson recommended letting the Bush tax rates on the wealthy expire, while also proposing to cap or eliminate deductions primarily enjoyed by the wealthy.

Above all, the Republicans have yet to grasp that the field is tilted against them. Republicans have every reason to expect, based on their scouting of past Obama performances, that he will start moving toward them and then, essentially, bargain with himself. But now he doesn’t have to. Right now, the policy choice isn’t between an Obama proposal the Republicans abhor and a preferred Republican proposal. No, the choice is between an Obama proposal the Republicans abhor and the fiscal cliff, which Republicans would like even less and the Democrats could live with for a while.
The Republicans are losing, and time is running out. But instead of putting the quarterback on the field and rolling out an aggressive two-minute drill, they seem to be preparing to punt.
     Update: House Speaker Boehner has come up with a "proposal." It would take the sequestration that would cut funding so much that it would render the federal government, including the Social Security Administration, inoperable and increase it by 30%! To quote John McEnroe, "You cannot be serious!"

East Memphis Office To Close

     From the Memphis Flyer:
If all goes as planned, the Social Security office in East Memphis will close on December 28th, leaving 75,000 beneficiaries with the burden of traveling miles away to receive assistance.
 The East Memphis office, located on Players Club Parkway, is slated to close due to administrative budget cuts.
 The closure is estimated to save $300,000 annually....
On an average day, the office sees more than 150 walk-ins and receives more than 500 telephone calls.  ...
"Much of our administrative costs are to fund our employees and facilities across the country, and these cuts make it challenging to acquire and maintain adequate staffing," said Frank Viera, deputy regional communications director for the Social Security Administration. "Last fiscal year, we lost more than 4,000 federal and state employees, including more than 1,600 field office employees. We cannot afford to replace these employees, and we cannot continue to keep as many facilities operating as in prior years."

Dec 2, 2012

Disability Hearing Backlog Remains High

     From the Arizona Republic:
Adria Howard doesn't understand why her application for Social Security disability payments was denied without explanation.
The mother of two from Tolleson, Ariz., had worked until recently, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer that had spread to her back, and the pain made her job impossible. Now, she is preparing an appeal, and statistics show it could take nearly a year to get a hearing with an administrative-law judge. Meanwhile, her bills stack up. ...
In Arizona, about 8,900 people are waiting for a hearing to determine if they will receive benefits. Nationally, about 750,000 await a hearing. ...
"It seems the system is set up to require a lot of people to appeal," said Amina Kruck, vice president of advocacy programs at Arizona Bridge to Independent Living, a non-profit organization run by people with disabilities that assists other people with disabilities. ...
Financial struggles are common as the benefits application process drags on. Typically, those who are sick have lost all of their income, which can force them to rely on family help or other social services.

Suspect In Custody In Arizona Bombing

Abdul Latif Aldosary
     A suspect is in custody in connection with the bombing Friday at the Social Security field office in Casa Grande, AZ. He is Abdul Latif Aldosary, a 47 year old refugee from Iraq. A neighbor reports that he does not attend mosque and that "he hasn't any problems against America; he's very thankful he got to be a refuge somewhere." However, Aldosary has a history of imprisonment for communicating threats against an employer by mail and telephone.

A Counter-Offer -- Reduce The COLA

     From the Los Angeles Times:
Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, provided the first GOP counter-offer to President Obama’s push for higher taxes on the wealthy. McConnell said his party would like to increase the Medicare eligibility age and ask wealthier Americans to pay higher Medicare premiums. He also suggested paring back the cost-of-living increases given to Social Security beneficiaries ...
     And McConnelll is up for re-election in two years but he's more worried about re-nomination at the moment.

Dec 1, 2012

Explain Why This Would Work

Former Manager Charged With Identity Theft

      From the Associated Press:
A former manager at the Social Security Administration has been charged with stealing another man's identity and using it to make off with more than $160,000 worth of stocks. 
Randolph Hurst, of West Warwick [RI], was indicted Thursday. He appeared before a magistrate in U.S. District Court in Providence on Friday but did not enter a plea. ... 
Prosecutors say he spent all the money, including $60,000 for gold coins.
     Update: As a reader pointed out, it appears that Mr. Hurst has been trying his hand at representing Social Security claimants since retiring from Social Security.  I wonder about this statement at his website:
For part of my career, I decided whether or not someone qualified for disability benefits.  Any approval that I made was considered a final decision of the Social Security Administration.  I was trained to understand and perform the work of the disability examiners on the State medical board for initial and first appeal cases.  I was trained as well as to understand and perform the work of the Administrative Law Judges for the final appeal for previously denied claims for disability benefits.
That's the sort of statement that would get an attorney in trouble since, at best, it contains great exaggeration but Hurst wasn't an attorney. Of course, if you believe the testimonials on his website (and they look awfully suspicious to me) Hurst helped a postal service employee get the money he deserved from a lawsuit. If he did, he was clearly practicing law without a license.