Republicans Proposing Benefits Cuts

    The Associated Press reports that House Republicans are proposing benefits cuts as a price for reopening the government. The article does not specify Social Security cuts but it's hard to imagine this proposal not including the chained CPI proposal to cut Social Security's Cost Of Living Adjustments (COLA).

NOSSCR Responds To Sixty Minutes

     Rebecca Vallas, the Deputy Director of Government Affairs at the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR), spoke on Counterspin, a project of  Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR), today to speak about the recent Sixty Minutes story. Vallas details how misleading the Sixty Minutes piece was and argues against legislating by anecdote. Vallas' part of the program begins at the 9:45 mark.

Arizona DDS Closes Due To Lack Of Federal Money

     I don't know how this happened so quietly but the Arizona Disability Determination Service (DDS) was closed on Monday due to the federal government shutdown. We had already heard that the Maine DDS had closed for the same reason. I wonder if there are others we haven't heard about.

Federal Courts To Shutdown After Next Friday Due To Funding Problems

     The Associated Press is reporting that the federal courts will stop all "non-essential work" after October 17 if there is no resolution by then of the government shutdown. Many thousands of Social Security appeals are heard by the federal courts each year. This threatens to put a halt to these reviews.

A Bit Much

     I think someone at Social Security's Office of Inspector General got a little carried away, before the shutdown, in writing a press release on the conviction of a Florida woman on fraud charges.

COLA Announcement Delayed Due To Government Shutdown

     Because of the government shutdown, Social Security will be forced to delay an announcement of the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for this year.

Maine DDS Closes Due To Federal Shutdown

     The Maine Disability Determination Service (DDS) has closed because of the federal shutdown. Each state has a DDS. The DDS is a state agency which works under contract with the Social Security Administration (SSA) to do disability determinations at the initial and reconsideration levels. Because of the federal shutdown, SSA no longer has any money to pay for DDS operations. While SSA can order some of its employees to work during the shutdown, it cannot order a DDS to remain in operation. Many, perhaps most, states are in financial distress making it difficult for them to keep their DDS operating without reimbursement. It would be hard for a state to not meet its payroll for DDS employees while continuing to pay other state employees and there are other expenses, such as for consultative examinations. My state, North Carolina, has already stopped ordering consultative medical examinations and has suspended the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition program. Probably, the only reason that North Carolina DDS hasn't already been shut down is that its payroll isn't due until the end of the month. I'm afraid that Maine may just be the first in a stream of DDS closures.

     By the way, Maine DDS was already way behind and was getting help from the Vermont DDS.

The State Of The Shutdown-Debt Ceiling Crisis

     Jonathan Chait has posted a new and insightful piece on the government shutdown-debt ceiling crisis. You should read the whole piece but here's an excerpt:

One way to understand the dysfunction within the Republican Party is to think of it as a hostage scheme that spun out of control. The plan, originally formulated by Paul Ryan and other party leaders, involved a more aggressive reprise of the 2011 negotiations, where Republicans would use the threat of default, along with sequestration, to force President Obama to accept unfavorable budget terms. The plan was hijacked by Ted Cruz and transformed into a scheme using a less effective hostage threat (shutting down the government rather than defaulting) but tethered to the much more grandiose ransom of repealing Obamacare. As the Cruz scheme disintegrates around the Republicans, the original leaders are attempting to reassert control and revert to the original plan.

The subtext of op-eds today by Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan is a promise to ratchet down their ransom terms. Neither op-ed mentions any demands related to Obamacare. Ryan proposes to trade higher short-term discretionary government spending for permanent cuts to tax rates and retirement programs. “We can work together,” he writes. “We can do some good.”

The policy demands in Ryan’s op-ed are sufficiently vague that, if viewed as an opening bid, they would not completely preclude some kind of deal if he actually wants to bargain. The trouble is that Ryan’s entire history strongly suggests he does not want to deal. Every major attempt to create bipartisan budget negotiations has been quashed by Ryan....

The single most implausible element of the House leadership’s "let’s negotiate" gambit is the premise that a bipartisan budget deal would satisfy the Republican base. Any bipartisan deal, even one heavily slanted to the Republican side, would enrage conservatives. Even the tiniest concession — easing sequestration, closing a couple of token tax loopholes — would be received on the right as a betrayal. Loss aversion is a strong human emotion, and especially strong among movement conservatives. Concessions given away will dwarf any winnings in their mind. Boehner, Ryan, and Cantor have spent months regaling conservatives with promises of rich ransoms to come. Coming back with an actual negotiated settlement would enrage the right.