Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Election Time and Social Security Disability

As election time nears, it is time for the Social Security Administration to become the whipping board of all the politicians once again.  At every election time, particularly the Presidential Election, one of the major issues presented by the candidates is the never-ending problem of how to manage the fiscal expenditures of the United States.  Since one of the big ticket items that is always out there is the Social Security System, as part of everybody’s agenda they advocate “reforms”.  As we all know, usually “reforms” means somebody gets screwed.  I still recall when Ronald Reagan was elected and one of the first acts was to kick about half a million people off of Disability.  At the hearing offices (at that time called the Office of Hearings and Appeals) they increased the red-tape so badly that the ODAR Office went from what was originally one of the best in the Country to where it is now, dead last, as far as processing cases.  It became so bad that I had to wait in an outside office before a “guy” could take me to my “courtroom”.  The fact is, I’d been walking into the hearing rooms for 15 years and I think myself, and most everybody else, pretty well knew where these courtrooms were.  With an election in front of us, we will have some trepidation as to what the next “reform” may be.  There are tens of thousands of people employed in the Social Security Administration which causes a huge ripple effect and often results in delay or denial of benefits for recipients.  I would advise you to listen to the candidates.  Anytime somebody talks about reducing Social Security costs it usually means they are taking money away from somebody.