Barstow Field Office To Close

     The Barstow, CA Social Security field office is to close next week. It will be a 70 mile round trip to the nearest Social Security office. 

     The comments to the article are exactly the sort of thing seen in comments on this blog. All budget cuts that cause pain are President Obama's fault. That's ridiculous since austerity has been forced upon the country by Republicans in the House of Representatives. If pressed, those who post these comments say that Democrats control the White House and the Senate so everything bad must be Obama's fault. The logic is absurd, of course, but the consistency of these comments is amazing. It's the same thing everywhere you look. I don't think this is an accident. Someone is paying a lot of money to services that spread this sort of thing.

Central Offices Closed Again Due To Weather

     Inclement weather has once again closed Social Security's central offices in the Baltimore area today. This has been a tough winter for that area.

Take The Test

     Take an online Social Security quiz. Only 5% of those who took the quiz answered all the questions correctly but I bet that most readers of this blog can ace the test!
     By the way, yes, I know that technically some of the answers don't really fit into the True-False dichotomy used in the quiz but let's not get too technical here.

No, It's Not The Same Thing, You Ninny!

     Last week, Phillip Swagel wrote a piece in his Economix column in the New York Times saying that there should be no problem getting an agreement to rescue Social Security from long term doom. Liberals want to increase benefits for the poor. Conservatives are willing to increase benefits for the poor as long as benefits for the wealthy are reduced. So, hey, no problem, let's just do what the conservatives want and everybody will be happy. The column was so silly in my estimation that I didn't bother to link it here.

     Swagel writes this week to say that he just can't understand why people don't like his proposal. He notes that liberals seem to like eliminating the cap on earnings covered by the FICA tax as a solution to long term Social Security funding but, somehow, he just doesn't like that. He blows off the concerns of liberals that cutting benefits for the wealthy would undermine public support for Social Security as something that just doesn't interest an economist like him. Really? I thought that economists realized that politics was an inherent part of economic policy. More important, Swagel blows off the idea of lifting the FICA cap since as far as he's concerned lowering benefits for the wealthy would have the same "lifetime" effect as raising the cap. That notion is ridiculous. Lowering Social Security benefits for the wealthy would have little effect on the wealthy, the 1% and above, since Social Security benefits will never be more than a tiny percent of their retirement income. Lifting the FICA cap, however, would have a significant effect on the 1% since the FICA tax would cover all of their salary income. In any case, there's no way of balancing the books long term by cutting benefits for just the wealthy. The cuts would have to extend way down the ladder, especially if you're increasing benefits for the poor. Dramatic benefits cuts are politically impossible, no matter who's in power in Washington. Lifting the FICA cap is impossible only so long as Republicans control the White House, the Senate or the House of Representatives and that's not going to last forever.

     Really, Swagel, if raising the FICA cap and cutting benefits for the wealthy have the same "lifetime" effect, what's your problem with raising the FICA cap? You never explain this.

FOIA Processing At Social Security

     The Center for Effective Government has released a report on agency processing of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. The Social Security Administration had the highest overall rating of any agency.

Agency	Processing Results	Disclosure Rules	Quality of FOIA Website	Overall Score
Social Security Administration	107% (A+)	46% (F)	70% (C-)	83% (B)

Ending Social Security Number Printouts

     An announcement from the Social Security Administration:

To meet the increasing demands for our service, we need to make changes to how we provide some services to our customers. To protect the integrity of the Social Security number and prevent fraud, we will discontinue providing Social Security number printouts effective August 1, 2014. If you need proof of your Social Security number and you do not have your Social Security card, you will need to request a replacement Social Security card by completing the Application for a Social Security Card ( Form SS-5 ) and providing the required documentation. 

Also, effective October 1, 2014, Social Security will stop providing benefit verification letters in our offices. You will still be able to get an instant letter online with a personal my Social Security account or you may call us toll-free to request a letter by mail.

     I think that ceasing the agency had already announced the end of benefit verification letters but I believe that ending Social Security number printouts is new.

President's Budget Would Restore Some Of Social Security's Workforce

     Social Security would be in for a significant restoration of its workforce if the President's budget for fiscal year 2015 is adopted but it won't since Republicans still control the House of Representatives.

Social Security Administration

2014 Estimated 62,200

2015 Estimated 64,100

▲ 3.1 percent

      This would still be well below the 70,000 peak achieved just before Republicans took control of the House of Representatives.

President's Budget Proposing To End "File And Suspend"?

     Fox News is saying that the President's budget proposes to end "file and suspend." I don't recall seeing that. Is this report accurate?
     Even though I was planning to do this myself, I don't know that ending it is necessarily a bad idea. So few people know about file and suspend that it may be nothing more than a hidden treat for the unusually sophisticated. Can there be any significant amount of money involved in ending file and suspend? I thought that only a few were employing this strategy.