Senate Hearing At 3:00

     The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs hearing on Social Security disability benefits is to start at 3:00 EDT. It will be televised on C-SPAN 3. That will be both a cable and a streaming video feed.

    Update: It's not on C-SPAN -- they changed their minds about broadcasting it --  but it can be watched on the Committee website.

Vigorous Response To Sixty Minutes

     Media Matters has a blog post up concerning the criticism that the Sixty Minutes piece on the Social Security disability programs has received from national disability organizations.

     Michael Hiltzik at the Los Angeles Times calls the Sixty Minutes story "shameful." He notes that the Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) who told Sixty Minutes how easy it is to get Social Security disability benefits were singing a different tune in 2009. At that time, they said that the standards were too tight!
    The Center for Economic and Policy Research has posted a criticism of the Sixty Minutes story on its blog.

Journalistic Ethics?

     Sixty Minutes had Jennifer Griffith and Sarah Carver speaking on camera about the alleged criminal behavior of Eric Conn without mentioning that Griffith and Carver are suing Conn in federal court seeking massive qui tam damages. Shouldn't that detail have been mentioned? Shouldn't Sixty Minutes have also mentioned that the federal government usually takes over meritorious qui tam actions but decided not to take over this qui tam action, which basically means that the federal government thinks that the charges made by Griffith and Carver can't be proven?

Why Is Eric Conn Operating Out Of Double Wides If He's Rolling In Dough?

     By the way, if Eric Conn has made such vast sums off representing Social Security disability claimants, why is he operating out of double wides? I know that Lincoln statue cost a fair amount of money and I know we're talking about an area where many, many people live in double wides but, still, why wouldn't he be operating out of decent office space if he's rolling in dough?

What The Debt Ceiling Showdown Is About

     From Jonathan Chait writing for New York Magazine:

[The Obama Administration sees] the debt-ceiling fight as being mainly about the long-term question of whether Congress will cement into place the practice of using the debt ceiling to extort concessions from the president. The price of buying off a debt-ceiling hike would surely be less than the risk of a default. But doing so would enshrine debt-ceiling extortion as a normal congressional practice. This both skews the Constitutional relationship between branches — allowing an unscrupulous Congress to demand unilateral concessions at gunpoint rather than having to compromise — and creates endless brinksmanship that would eventually lead to a default.

Didn't Know My Own Strength

     There's more at the CBS website on how brave they and Senator Coburn are to buck the powerful "disability industry."

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?