Thursday, January 8, 2015

The Coming Congressional War Over Social Security Disability

A good piece from Howard Gleckman at Forbes.

A technical rule change engineered by House Republicans on the first day of the new Congress may signal the beginning of a major battle over the future of the Social Security Disability program—and, more broadly, other federal programs for people with disabilities.

Check it out here.

1 comment:

WilliamLarsen said...

It would appear that congress has tired of trying to fix Social Security. In the past when either OASI or DI were facing imminent inability to pay full scheduled benefits based on a ponzi scheme, they changed the tax rate or transferred funds. Now congress appears to have wised up and will not transfer funds from the OASI trust to the DI trust fund.

This is good news since it will actually require them to review the entire program and how it is funded. In the past they played kicked the can. Now there is less than two years.

What they do with the DI program will be an indication of what they may do for the OASI program.

Workers do not want to see their taxes go up. Beneficiaries do not want to see their benefits cut. I think it will come down to which group (workers v beneficiaries) can garner the greatest number of votes.

Looking strictly at potential voters, the workers and those under 46 far out number everyone else.

The Social Security Ponzi Scheme started 78 years ago may soon be sleighed.