SSA Tells Staff That Benefit Payments Not Assured In Case Debt Ceiling Reached

     An Emergency Message sent out by the Social Security Administration to its staff:

Instructions
If a member of the public asks whether their Social Security payment will be affected if the federal debt ceiling is not raised, you may give the following response:

“Unlike a federal shutdown which has no impact on the payment of Social Security benefits, failure to raise the debt ceiling puts Social Security benefits at risk.”

Direct all program–related and technical questions to your supervisor.

Washington Times On Alleged Fraud

     The Washington Times has a story on today's scheduled Senate hearing on alleged fraud in the Social Security disability programs. Eric Conn and former Administrative Law Judge David Daugherty are scheduled to testify. There is supposed to be a report released today alleging fraud by these two. Why haven't they been indicted?

Getting Thrown Under The Bus

    The Sixty Minutes piece on the Social Security disability programs has run. It didn't seem fair or balanced to me that what I do for a living was represented solely by Binder & Binder and Eric Conn. I don't think that anyone familiar with this field of legal practice thinks that Binder & Binder (which isn't a law firm anyway) or Eric Conn is representative of Social Security attorneys. 

     I've never had a physician examining claimants in my office. I don't know anyone who does. That arrangement presents obvious credibility problems that seem to me to make doing it worse than useless. Why was this presented as if it were a common practice?

     I was displeased to see two Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) trying to throw Social Security disability claimants and their attorneys under the bus -- and the ALJs didn't even get to promote their government representative plan. I hope that they realize that throwing other people under the bus didn't make ALJs look good in anyone's mind.

     The biggest problem with the show is that it relied heavily upon Senator Coburn's report saying that he found that many Social Security disability recipients weren't disabled. Coburn's report never revealed who made those determinations that Social Security got it wrong. I think it can be taken for granted that the people making this determination for Coburn had an ax to grind but beyond that is the question of whether they were even familiar with the definition of disability in the Social Security Act and regulations. Clearly, Coburn has only limited familiarity himself. He wanted to emphasize that a claimant should be denied as long as they could do any job. No, it's any job existing in significant numbers in the national economy considering age, education and work experience. This is far from a trivial distinction since consideration of "age, education and work experience" play heavily in most disability determinations. Social Security isn't supposed to deny the claim of a retired coal miner because he can still be a nuclear physicist.

     There will be a Senate hearing tomorrow. I hope some Democratic Senators bother to show up and challenge Senator Coburn. I also hope the witness list is balanced, unlike this Sixty Minutes piece.

60 Minutes Piece On Social Security Disability Tonight

     Sixty Minutes will do a piece tonight on Social Security disability, apparently focusing on allegations of wrongdoing in Puerto Rico and West Virginia, linking those situations to the possible exhaustion of the Disability Insurance Trust Fund in 2016. Expect a fair and balanced report.

     @ccd4pwd will do a live tweet fact check on the 60 Minutes story.

Shutdown Roundup

     Today's shutdown roundup:

• The House of Representatives unanimously passed legislation that would assure furloughed federal workers that they will be paid once the shutdown ends.
• The government shutdown didn't just "happen." It was planned. Edwin Meese, believe it or not, led the planning. The Koch brothers are providing lavish funding for the effort which includes threats to Repulicans who oppose the crusade.
• Polling shows that if an election were held today Republicans might lose control of the House of Representatives. However, an election isn't being held today and voters have short memories.
• The Department of Defense is recalling most of its furloughed workers. No sign of any recall at Social Security.
• Dan Balz at the Washington Post writes about the cultural divide behind the shutdown and how that divide threatens to cause additional trouble in the future.
• Jonathan Chait writes on the dangerous flaw in the U.S. Constitution that has led to the shutdown. My takeaway: This shutdown must be completely crushed at all costs. No ransom can be paid. There must be a cost to be paid by those politicians who voted to create this crisis.  Otherwise, there is a serious threat that the U.S. Constitution will ultimately fail.

Boehner Plan: Keep Party Unified A While Longer Before Its Position Collapses

     From the New York Times:

The overarching problem for the man at the center of the budget fight [Boehner], say allies and opponents, is that he and his leadership team have no real idea how to resolve the fiscal showdown.

They are only trying to survive another day, Republican strategists say, hoping to maintain unity as long as possible so that when the Republican position collapses, they can capitulate on two issues at once — financing the government and raising the debt ceiling — and head off any internal party backlash. Republican lawmakers say Mr. Boehner has assured them privately that he will not permit a default.

     Marc Thiessen at the Washington Post characterizes the current situation as a "shutdown about nothing." Paging Jerry Seinfeld.

Shutdown News Roundup

     A roundup of shutdown related news:

• From The Hill: "Everybody's tried to envision [an endgame], but nobody has it yet," said Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), an ally of [House Speaker] Boehner. "Honestly, I don't know what we're going to do.”
• North Carolina Disability Determination Services (DDS), which does disability determinations for Social Security, is cancelling consultative examinations because of the shutdowns. Also, a few North Carolina DDS employees are being furloughed, even though Social Security is encouraging DDS's to stay open. If the states aren't getting money from Social Security, how long can they keep the DDS's open? Can they not pay a state employee when other state employees are being paid?
• At ground level, it's obvious that Social Security employees still on the job have received confusing instructions on what they can and cannot do during the shutdown. I'm not going to go into detail but it's a problem. You can see evidence of this in the responses to my blog post on the implementation of ALJ decisions. And, on that subject, despite what ALJs have been told, no one who implements decisions has been furloughed. Employees at ODAR offices who perform tasks associated with issuing decisions have been furloughed but not the people who actually implement those decisions.
• KPCC has a piece on one of Social Security's furloughed attorneys. She's upset for herself. She's upset for the claimants whose lives are being affected. The letter pictured above is one that Social Security has told her to give to creditors.
• The President warned yesterday that if we crash into the debt ceiling that Social Security payments will not go out on time. However, House Speaker Boehner says he's willing to buck his party to increase the debt ceiling.
• Republicans aren't sure whether they want to give back pay to federal workers who have been furloughed. {Keep digging, guys. The hole you're in can get still get deeper.)
• Liberals are worried about a grand bargain to settle this mess might include chained CPI.

60 Minutes Piece On Social Security Disability Coming On Sunday

     From the newsletter of the Association of Administrative Law Judges (AALJ):

This Sunday evening, October 6, the television news show “60 minutes” will air a story regarding the SSA disability adjudication system. AALJ Vice-President, Marilyn Zahm and I were interviewed for over 2 ½ hours by Steve Kroft of “60 minutes”. The interview covered many of the problems judges have experienced with the disability adjudication system at SSA. Some of the subjects discussed include the need for government representation, procedural rules, closing the record and quotas. Senator Tom Coburn was also interviewed for the program. 

We believe the segment will run for approximately 15 minutes but could be longer. Hopefully, this type of exposure will benefit our continuous efforts to improve our system of justice

     Note that the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Operations will hold a hearing Monday on Social Security Disability Benefits: Did a Group of Judges, Doctors, and Lawyers Abuse Programs for the Country's Most Vulnerable?