Warren Decries SSDI Changes

This will be long, because I'm pasting it from The Wall Street Journal, re: the recent Social Security disability.

Congress last year unanimously closed a loophole that allowed surviving Nazi war criminals to claim Social Security benefits, but that’s where the entitlement reform consensus ends. Now the political left is melting down over a modest budget change that could require Congress to be honest about the Social Security disability program’s fiscal problems and employment distortions.

Republicans are “inventing a Social Security crisis that will threaten benefits for millions and put our most vulnerable at risk,” wrote Senator Elizabeth Warren , in one of her subtler commentaries. AARP and other left-leaning groups are also war-whooping that a procedural rule the House adopted last week will mean about a 19% cut in disability-insurance benefits.

If only. Social Security payroll taxes finance traditional income transfers for the elderly and disability payments, and an ever-larger share is going to the latter for what amounts to promoting middle-age retirement. What used to be last-resort insurance has come to apply to ailments like back pain or anxiety. More and more workers are leaving the labor force permanently and substituting disability for wages.

In 1990 about one of every 10 Social Security dollars flowed to disability. Now it’s nearly one of five. The disability rolls doubled between 1990 and 2008, and then they spiked 21% in the Obama era to 10.2 million Americans and their dependents. Only about one-third of this growth can be explained by the underlying health, size and demographic composition of the working-age population.

ENLARGE

WSJ

Payments have exploded 32% since 2008 to $140.1 billion. And every year since 2009 disability payments have exceeded the revenues dedicated to disability by a portion of the Social Security payroll tax. The nearby chart tracks the decline in the so-called trust fund that is scheduled to run dry in 2016.

Like the separate trust fund for seniors, this does not mean that some pool of money in the Treasury is running down. All current Social Security payments are financed by current payroll taxes. Trust funds are an accounting fiction that Congress invented to give the appearance that payroll taxes are being saved and invested.

There is one legal catch: When a trust-fund balance reaches zero and current revenue can’t cover current claims, the Treasury isn’t allowed to pay out full benefits. The projected disability shortfall for 2016 is 19% of liabilities, which is how the same liberals who created this shortfall get their figure for phantom cuts.

In practice Congress always protects entitlements for current beneficiaries. Eleven times since 1968, most recently in 2000, Congress has reallocated balances back and forth between the disability fund and the old-age trust fund to disguise Social Security’s financial shortfall. Liberals want to do it again to fill the growing disability hole.

But this bookkeeping maneuver would be especially reckless now, given that the long-term shortfall for payments to the elderly is much larger in absolute and relative terms. The crisis merely arrives later—about 2030—than the immediate disability shortfall.

The best analogy is to an underwater borrower transferring debt from one maxed-out credit card to another with a higher balance but also a higher spending limit. The new House Republican rule merely bars this accounting ruse, on the sensible grounds that Congress shouldn’t keep lying to the public. It may even force Congress to confront each of the two Social Security programs on its own terms.

Reforming disability insurance needn’t mean slashing benefits. It does require setting priorities that help the genuinely disabled while encouraging people who can work to remain on the job.

The subjective eligibility criteria for disability haven’t been updated in 35 years despite advances in medicine and rehabilitation, and they are enforced at the discretion of administrative judges. Applicants often use a shadow industry of lawyers, doctors and bureaucratic fixers to qualify. And as former Senator Tom Coburn amply documented, fraud is rampant.

If the GOP’s truth-in-advertising change forces Congress to fix the disability mess and protect the most vulnerable, so much the better.

A More Inclusive World

 Isaac Zablocki is Director NY Film Programs, ReelAbilities: Disabilities Film Festival.

 

 As the Special Olympics kicks off in South Korea, I am brought once again to question our standards of inclusivity in America. People with disabilities make up the largest minority in America and intellectual disabilities is the fastest growing percentage of that group among children. In our society, we tend to judge people by subjective standards, like aptitude and exterior beauty, often leaving out those who do not have "standard abilities." We admire and idolize people who are not particularly talented, unique, or outstanding, yet, people with different abilities are hidden from the spotlight -- particularly people with developmental disabilities.

Medicaid On the Ballot

 From New York Times' columnist Paul Krugman.

There’s a lot we don’t know about what Mitt Romney would do if he won. He refuses to say which tax loopholes he would close to make up for $5 trillion in tax cuts; his economic “plan” is an empty shell.

But one thing is clear: If he wins, Medicaid — which now covers more than 50 million Americans, and which President Obama would expand further as part of his health reform — will face savage cuts.

Denying Health Care to Autistic Is Nothing New

From Age of Autism's Kim Stagliano.

Traditional and social media are abuzz with a story of a Pennsylvania man with autism who has been denied a heart transplant at The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania over his "psychiatric condition" and "autism."  His mother, Karen Corby, is rightfully outraged that her son's life has been judged and fallen short of the "criteria" for life.
In thinking about the story, it occurred to me that while denial of a heart transplant is cut and dried no bones about it refusal to give medical care to a sick American - it's only the ugly publicized tip of a dirty and monstrous iceberg under the surface of healthcare for people with autism.

Tracy Morgan Drops the 'R' Word

Tracy Morgan may want to invest in a bus, because his apology tour may not be over just yet.
The Arc, a nonprofit advocacy group serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, is the latest organization demanding an apology from the comedian for remarks he made during his stand-up routine Saturday—his first performance since his infamous antigay rant.
This time Tracy ranted about "retarded kids" and "cripples." Oh boy.

Opinion: Illinois Cuts Will Prove Costly

Guest column by Tony Paulauski, executive director of The Arc of Illinois, in the Rockford Register Star.

Illinois is planning devastating cuts in services for individuals with physical, developmental and intellectual disabilities. These cuts target our most vulnerable citizens and are being sold as a way to balance Illinois' estimated $13 billion deficit. The truth is, these cuts are shortsighted and will send us on a path of destruction.
Illinois ranks last in the nation for supporting citizens with disabilities in their home communities. Disability services that are the lifeline to more than 220,000 people with disabilities, and their families have already experienced deep cuts and are hanging by a thread. In addition to funding reductions several critical programs are being eliminated, and it’s estimated that 3,052 direct care staff will be laid off as a result. At the same time the budget calls for the hiring of 950 state employees and grants union employees an 8.25 percent wage increase.

Hundreds Protest Proposed Cuts in Arizona

PHOENIX -- They've lost child care, housing, transportation, case management, therapies for their disabled children and counseling for themselves.
They aren't optimistic that they will change the minds of Gov. Jan Brewer and Republican lawmakers, who are poised Thursday to enact even deeper budget cuts to balance a combined $1.6 billion deficit this year and next.
But they found a way to get to the state Capitol on Wednesday. An estimated 500 of the state's most vulnerable citizens and their advocates, some in wheelchairs and strollers, rallied against reductions to health care and social services.

Hundreds Flood Missouri Capitol in Support of Disability Rights

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — People lined the staircases and the upper galleries; in the rotunda, every seat was filled.
Advocates arrived en masse at the Capitol building Wednesday for a rally in support of legislation that will expand the rights given to Missouri's citizens with disabilities.
Among those speaking at the rally were Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder and Speaker of the House Rep. Steve Tilley, R-Perryville.
They spoke amid cheers and chants from a crowd calling for the extension of their civil rights, the end to institutionalization and the appropriation of funds for disability services.

Illinois Moves to Close Nursing Home

CHICAGO -- Saying they wanted to avoid more casualties, state authorities took steps Thursday to shut down the troubled Alden Village North nursing home, where numerous disabled children have died in recent years.
"We don't want another tragedy to occur," said Michael Gelder, the governor's senior health policy adviser.
State officials said they notified Alden that they planned to revoke its license, which would effectively close the facility. An Alden spokesman said the facility would appeal and remain open.
The action follows a Tribune investigative series in October that revealed a 10-year pattern of neglect and death at the North Side facility, which cares for about 90 children and adults with severe developmental disabilities.