The Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee are calling for answers from Social Security on the long lines outside the agency's field offices.
I've got an idea. Why don't they hold a hearing to highlight the problem for the Appropriations Committee which apparently feels that Social Security doesn't deserve enough money for the next fiscal year to even cover inflation much less to improve service?
From Fox News:
President Biden on Monday commemorated the 87th anniversary of the Social Security Act becoming law by touting Democrat plans to protect, expand and deliver "stronger" benefits to recipients, while warning that a Republican-controlled Congress could put the program "on the chopping block." ...
Look, if you know me, you know I think rebuilding the middle class is the moral obligation of our time," Biden says in the video. "Social Security allows for our seniors to retire with dignity, and me and my Democratic friends on the hill are trying to protect it and expand it." ...
"But here’s what’s crazy," Biden continued. "Republicans on the hill—they want to put it on the chopping block."
"Every five years it would come up to reconsideration, whether it continues or not," Biden said. "Think about that."
Biden was referring to a plan Republican Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., proposed earlier this year that would sunset Social Security and Medicare within five years.
"Let me ask you have you ever seen the Republicans on Capitol Hill do anything to protect or increase or to benefit Social Security?" Biden asked. ...
"So here’s the deal, with Democrats in Congress, you get stronger social security because you paid for it and you deserve it," Biden said. "With Republicans in Congress, it’s probably going to get sliced." ...
But Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., shut down Scott’s proposal earlier this year, stressing that Republicans "will not have as part of our agenda a bill that raises taxes on half the American people and sunsets Social Security and Medicare within five years." ...
Social Security's Office of General Counsel is hiring. They're accepting the first 1,000 applications.
NAPA has come up with five possible ways to address this issue:
NAPA regards the last two options as not feasible.
I'm betting we end up with no change in the status quo. Social Security acknowledges that there are problems with its Death Master File but it's unlikely that anyone else would do better. There's certainly no other agency that wants this chore.
By the way, this is a much better report than you usually see from a Beltway Bandit.
From the Washington Post:
... Inspired by Mississippi-based journalist Sarah Fowler’s brilliant Washington Post story on the folks who changed their baby’s first name — 30,000 in the past five years alone — we asked the Social Security Administration for a list of the most-changed names. They ran the numbers back to 2017. ...
Social Security has issued an Emergency Message on the evaluation of Covid cases. It goes on and on but says little. Certainly, there is no suggestion that there are standards that the agency is obliged to abide by. Everything must be "considered."
A Caseload Analysis Report on Social Security's Office of Hearings Operations, posted online. As always, click on the image to view full size.
