Status Of The Shutdown And What It Portends For The Future

     Here are a couple of excerpts from pundits, suggesting that we're nearing a solution to the current impasse but that even though Social Security and Medicare are safe, any government benefit that older white voters perceive as going to the undeserving will continue to draw fevered opposition from the GOP:

     Jonathan Bernstein writing for the Washington Post:

Republicans do seem to be getting ready to surrender (although they seem to have only reached the stage at which they’re asking for rewards for surrendering; it may take a while longer for them to fully understand the concept). A true economic disaster may yet be avoided. But everyone should remember just how irresponsible they’ve been on this one.

     Ronald Bernstein writing for the National Journal:

Veteran Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg, who has studied the two parties' coalitions since the 1980s, recently conducted several focus groups with GOP voters that probed this passion. He concluded that the roaring sense of embattlement among the almost all-white tea party and evangelical Christian voters central to the GOP base draws on intertwined ideological, electoral, and racial fears. ... 

Greenberg's analysis echoes the findings of other scholars, such as Harvard sociologist Theda Skocpol, whose studies have concluded that the tea party's most ardent priority is reducing government transfer payments to those it considers undeserving....

House GOP leaders flailing for an exit strategy this week are again suggesting broad negotiations that will constrain entitlement programs such as Medicare. But our latest polling shows older and downscale whites overwhelmingly resist changes in Medicare or Social Security, which they consider benefits they have earned—and pointedly distinguish from transfer programs.

Those findings suggest that the real fight under way isn't primarily about the size of government but rather who benefits from it. The frenzied push from House Republicans to derail Obamacare, shelve immigration reform, and slash food stamps all point toward a steadily escalating confrontation between a Republican coalition revolving around older whites and a Democratic coalition anchored on the burgeoning population of younger nonwhites.

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.