Satellite Office Closes In Hawaii

     Social Security has announced the closing of its satellite office in Kona, Hawaii. The office had only been open four hours a month. Local residents now face a two hour drive each way to conduct business in person at a Social Security office. The satellite office in Kona had been well used. Locals had complained about long lines and limited places to sit. The local mayor said that closing the satellite office was "obviously a decision made by someone not from Hawaii Island.” The decision to close the satellite office affects not just those who are receiving or want to receive Social Security benefits. It affects those who need a replacement Social Security card so they can get a drivers license.

Dreams Die Hard

     From Paul Krugman writing for the New York Times:

... Since the 1970s, the Republican Party has fallen increasingly under the influence of radical ideologues, whose goal is nothing less than the elimination of the welfare state — that is, the whole legacy of the New Deal and the Great Society. From the beginning, however, these ideologues have had a big problem: The programs they want to kill are very popular. Americans may nod their heads when you attack big government in the abstract, but they strongly support Social Security, Medicare, and even Medicaid. So what’s a radical to do? 

The answer, for a long time, has involved two strategies. One is “starve the beast,” the idea of using tax cuts to reduce government revenue, then using the resulting lack of funds to force cuts in popular social programs. Whenever you see some Republican politician piously denouncing federal red ink, always remember that, for decades, the G.O.P. has seen budget deficits as a feature, not a bug.

Arguably more important in conservative thinking, however, was the notion that the G.O.P. could exploit other sources of strength — white resentment, working-class dislike of social change, tough talk on national security — to build overwhelming political dominance, at which point the dismantling of the welfare state could proceed freely....

O.K., you see the problem: Democrats didn’t go along with the program, and refused to give up. Worse, from the Republican point of view, all of their party’s sources of strength have turned into weaknesses. Democratic dominance among Hispanics has overshadowed Republican dominance among southern whites; women’s rights have trumped the politics of abortion and antigay sentiment; and guess who finally did get Osama bin Laden. 

And look at where we are now in terms of the welfare state: far from killing it, Republicans now have to watch as Mr. Obama implements the biggest expansion of social insurance since the creation of Medicare.

So Republicans have suffered more than an election defeat, they’ve seen the collapse of a decades-long project. And with their grandiose goals now out of reach, they literally have no idea what they want — hence their inability to make specific demands [in the fiscal cliff negotiations].

It’s a dangerous situation. The G.O.P. is lost and rudderless, bitter and angry, but it still controls the House and, therefore, retains the ability to do a lot of harm, as it lashes out in the death throes of the conservative dream. 

AFGE Statement On Arizona Bombing

     From a press release issued by the President of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the union that represents most Social Security employees:

A recent explosion outside the Social Security Administration office in Casa Grande, Ariz., should be a wakeup call for every agency head that the security and safety of our federal employees should be a top priority.

In this frightening event, a homemade bomb was detonated at the employee entrance to the Social Security office on the morning of Nov. 30. Luckily, no one was injured in the blast, although some employees have developed a cough and one is being examined for possible hearing loss as a result of the explosion.

Employees are understandably shaken and frightened and worried that they are putting their lives in danger simply by showing up for work. This incident is a stark reminder of the difficult and often dangerous environment in which federal employees work.

The office reopened Thursday for the first time following the incident, and employees have been gratified by the outpouring of support and encouragement from visitors.

I want to thank AFGE Local 3694 President Tony Thomas and Council 147 President Katrina Lopez for attending to the needs of the affected employees. I also extend my gratitude to SSA Administrator Michael Astrue and Region 9 Commissioner Bill Zielinski for personally visiting the office and pledging to review security enhancements at all Social Security offices.

We Should Double Social Security Benefits!

     Steven Hill writing in The Atlantic urges that we double Social Security benefits. I know and Hill knows that isn't going to happen but he makes a strong argument that Social Security benefits shouldn't be cut and, if anything, should be increased.
     Only about a third of seniors now have pension income. Defined benefit pensions -- the kind that pay a guaranteed benefit -- have been rapidly disappearing over the last thirty years. Only about 10% of workers are now covered by this type of pension. Sixty-five percent of workers are now covered by defined contribution pensions -- 401(k) type plans --  which have exploded in popularity with employers over the last thirty years. The problem is that:

401(k)s and other defined-contribution plans have turned out to be an unreliable pillar of retirement security, not only because they don't provide as secure a net but because many Americans are pretty lousy at managing their investments. A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that more than one-quarter of baby boomer households thought "hardly at all" about retirement and that financial literacy among boomers was "alarmingly low." Half could not do a simple math calculation (divide $2 million by five) and fewer than 20 percent could calculate compound interest.

     Seventy-five percent of Americans nearing retirement have less than $30,000 in their retirement accounts.

     Traditionally, home ownership has provided seniors with a cushion they can rely upon in retirement but during the Great Recession homeowners have lost $8 trillion in home equity. Twenty-eight percent of homeowners are underwater on their mortgages.

     The result is that about half of Americans are at risk of not having sufficient retirement income. 

     Still think the idea of increasing Social Security benefits is no outlandish? Are you really ready for retirement?

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas?

     Yesterday a legal assistant at my firm made this note in our database "Faxed ______ DO [District Office] re: clt being paid. TC _______ DO. On hold 25 min; they just are not answering their phone." The Legal Assistant was trying to contact that DO regarding a client whose Supplemental Security Income claim was approved by an Administrative Law Judge on October 26. So far the client has received no money. If you're familiar with the way these things are supposed to work, this shouldn't be happening. The benefits should have been paid at least a couple of weeks ago. The client is upset. We're trying to get the District Office moving but we can't get them on the phone and they don't respond to faxes. Why is this happening? It's simple. Lack of an adequate staff at that District Office. People who work at Social Security field offices aren't perfect but they typically like to help people. They get frustrated when the best they can do is to give lousy service.

     If you aren't involved directly with Social Security field offices, the whole subject of Social Security's operating budget must seem so abstract.  A hiring freeze and no overtime at Social Security -- what's the big deal? No one's getting fired. It's a big deal to this lady. She's been approved. She can't get paid. Will her benefits get implemented before Christmas? I wouldn't bet on it. By the way, she's on home oxygen. How many more Christmases will she see?

Alleged Fraud At Social Security Employee Activities Association

     I missed this one earlier. From the Baltimore City Paper:

Sal­va­tore Petti, a 76-year-old Elli­cott City res­i­dent who has been at the cen­ter of a still-simmering dis­pute involv­ing the bocce courts in Baltimore’s Lit­tle Italy neigh­bor­hood (“Bocce Brawl,” Fea­ture, June 22, 2011), has been charged in U.S. Dis­trict Court with fraud for allegedly divert­ing funds from a Social Secu­rity Admin­is­tra­tion employ­ees’ association.

Accord­ing to the charg­ing doc­u­ments, Petti had been trea­surer of the non-profit Employ­ees Activ­i­ties Asso­ci­a­tion (EAA) for more than 40 years until 2010, and for about five years until Dec. 2009, “Petti diverted EAA funds for his own per­sonal use to sup­port his lifestyle, which included spend­ing approx­i­mately $430,000 at the Bor­gata Hotel, Casino, & Spa and $43,000 at the Trop­i­cana Hotel and Casino” in Atlantic City between about March 2005 and August 2010.

Merry Christmas