Social Security fix divides Congress, but there is no fix proposed at all

If you are receiving Social Security benefits or hope to within the next twenty years, you should be concerned. Decisions about the future of Social Security are being made by short-sighted, ill-advised and incompetent people and you will pay the price.

While Congress fights over the disability fund, the real problems for your Social Security go unaddressed as the clock is ticking. Do you seriously think that reviewing the cases of people on disability will send them back to work? And by the way, why hasn’t the program been doing these reviews for eligibility all along? Why were millions of people allowed to effectively transfer from unemployment to Social Security disability during the recession when you are supposed to be able to and available for work while collecting unemployment? [The termination rate from SSDI is currently 8.37% -from all causes- essentially unchanged in the last fifteen years].

But hey, all we have to do is eliminate the cap on taxable wages and turn Social Security into a massive welfare program and … problem solved😎

🔻🔻🔻Mr. Obama’s budget proposal includes a transfer of $330 billion from the Social Security retirement fund to the disability fund that would keep both programs solvent until 2033, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office🔻🔻🔻

🔻🔻🔻The president’s plan also would seek to control disability insurance costs by creating a pilot program for early intervention strategies to keep people in the workforce and expanding a program that reviews cases every three to seven years to determine if a disabled person’s condition has improved enough for a return to work🔻🔻🔻

🔻🔻🔻Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont, the committee’s ranking member, insisted that Social Security isn’t in jeopardy.

“In my view, the debate we are having today is nothing more than a manufactured crisis which is part of the long-term Republican agenda of trying to cut Social Security,” said Mr. Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats. “The Social Security Trust Fund can pay out every benefit owed to every eligible American for the next 18 years. There is no imminent crisis.”

Mr. Sanders, who is considering a 2016 presidential run, has proposed increasing Social Security taxes on the wealthy to extend the life of the trust funds by another 75 years.

Congress has to agree to a fix for the disability program by early next year or else the cuts will take effect automatically🔻🔻🔻

via Social Security fix divides Congress – Washington Times.