Social Security to start cashing Uncle Sam's IOUs

[classicman]

Actually I was referring to the area I sat OUTSIDE waiting for the doors to open.

I do not think they will let you into the building armed, and honestly the temptation for some to put a few of those idiots out of their misery would probably be too great.
I caught on quick and did things their way. I had the luck of listening to a few people try in vain to explain the reality of their situation while waiting.

[glatt]

Smart. Working within the system is always more productive that trying to get it to change for you.

[infinite monkey]

Threatening employees, no matter how roundabout, is not, however, very fucking smart.

[classicman]

WTF are YOU babbling on about infi? I threatened NO ONE.
Please keep your paranoia to yourself.


This message has not been deleted by classicman. Reason: wishing you ill does help my blood pressure, fuckface

[SamIam]

The social security offices I have visited actually keep their employees behind bullet proof glass. The office in Colorado Springs comes complete with an armed guard, as well. When I had the occasion to visit the offices of the regional district for disability determination hearings, everyone was behind the bullet proof glass, complete with guard there, as well.

I doubt if they're worried about Classic, though. There are quite a few folks who have to apply for SSI/DI due to mental conditions like paranoid schizophrenia, psychosis, etc. If they're not on their meds - and often they're not because they don't have access to health care - they can be very spooky.

I have watched people who I sat beside, waiting for hours to be called - and you don't dare leave for a break because if they call your number when you're gone, you have to take a new number and start all over again. Then you get up to the window and you don't have form GVT666 which no one had ever mentioned the existence of until now - back to the old drawing board. The employees at those windows take a lot of abuse which actually the local Congressman should be getting since Congress is responsible for this mess.

Another lovely rule social security has about disability hearings is that yours can be expedited if you threaten to harm anyone who works for social security. So, go to the window, scream at the clerk and make violent threats, and you are rewarded for this behavior by having your case jumped to the head of the line, saving you a wait of a year or more. Brilliant rule, that.

[classicman]

Saving Social Security
from the WSJ ...

Social Security actuaries estimate that the current payroll tax of 12.4% (divided evenly between employers and employees) plus income taxes paid by beneficiaries will not raise enough money to fully cover all of the benefits that have been promised over the next 75 years. Specifically, they put the gap at 2.22% of taxable earnings. Put another way, the payroll tax could be boosted by about 2.22 percentage points, or benefits could be cut by an equivalent amount, to close the gap.

A selection of options evaluated by the actuaries, nonpartisan government officials, are listed below, along with an estimate of each option's impact. When the slider reaches zero, Social Security would be considered solvent for another 75 years.

Interactive tool...
Click here to try

[BigV]

Originally Posted by BigV

For the record, that was six billion of Iraq's dollars--not "our" money we were giving to them. It was their money from the start, deposited directly in the Fed Bank in NY as a function of the rules of the Oil for Food program from years earlier. It worked so well that they continued it for years.

Originally Posted by classicman

But ... we are apparently responsible for it. If the money is not accounted for,
we apparently will have to pay them with "our money."


Read more:

Originally Posted by Fair&Balanced

Iraq claims the agreement holds the US responsible but Iraq wont be the one to make that determination.

Originally Posted by classicman

I was looking for more info on that ... The reporting got interrupted by some dick.

How exactly would that determination be made? Is there some world court or what?

Originally Posted by Fair&Balanced

That I dont know.

I do know the SIGIR is investigating the involvement of Americans in any theft, fraud, bribery, etc. and potentially recovery $hundreds of millions.

http://www.sigir.mil/directorates/in...ons/index.html

The US cant prosecute Iraqis but we could certainly demand that the Iraq government do the same with due diligence before any discussion of any repayment.

ok, kind of a long series here and not really about SSI. Anyhow.

Shit, man. If I'm delivering a shrink wrapped pallet of hundred dollar bills, you can be assured I'm gonna get a signature or two on my delivery receipt. I'm no auditor, I am pathologically ill suited for such work. So, I trust auditors instead. There has got to be a way to find out where the money was LAST SEEN.

I used to borrow my Dad's tools. This was a big deal, he kept his tools locked up. I loved working with his tools on my bike, my skateboard, whatever. Once, my friends and I were all working on our bikes and I let my friend use one of the tools. It went missing. Long story short, my Dad was uninterested in my story. He entrusted *ME* with the tool, therefore *I* was responsible for it. For returning it or replacing it. If that meant getting it from my friend, fine. Getting a new one from the store, fine. He gave it to me, he gets it back from me. Preeeetty simple. I don't see how this doesn't apply here too.

[xoxoxoBruce]

In order for SS to know they overpaid money, wouldn't they have to know who it was paid to? Take it back... duh.

[classicman]

yebbut ...with their inefficiency - it'd probably cost 3x that to even try to get it back.

[Sundae]

Mildly related - I had to fight really hard to get my tax refund. All scratchy and bitey and pulling hair and all that.

Well, okay - no.
But it took more phone calls than I can list and telling the same story over and over and over again. And assuring the people on the Benefits Helpline that NO I had not received it automatically, but NO that did not mean I was not entitled to it.

In fact I've had to argue for most of the money I've received from the Government. At my first interview at the Job Centre I was advised I might not be eligible for Unemployment Benefit, because I had not worked long enough. 20 years?! She took that comment back and had a proper look at my details then.

Infi Mo, I have every sympathy for your position. I have always been courteous to staff and have tried to accept that they do not make the rules. I took chocs into the Job Centre when I signed off, because although they had nothing to do with me finding work, they were all decent people and they were doing their best.

Some don't though. Woolwich Council losing the copies of my paperwork and sending me threatening letters for example. So I had to wait for 2 hours to get them authorised again. And yet a letter dated TWO WEEKS after I got the second copy authorised was still sent out telling me all my benefits would be cancelled as I had failed to respond.

My DSA being cancelled with 3 days notice because of a decision made months ago. So I had to scrabble around to meet my bills and stop my Direct Debits so that I did not incur fines, and talk to the companies I was paying so they did not take me to court (they were Court agreed payments).

But then I've been at the mercy of my bank too. And public transport. And the NHS. Public servants are people. And people can be good or bad depending on the environment they work in.

It takes a lot for me to blame the staff. If they are polite and apologetic (when I've obviously been put out by something not my fault) then I am the epitome of understanding. Just watch out lazy barstaff or rude waiting staff. I WILL put a rocket up your arses, because I know exactly what you should be doing, and that good service is actually easier than bad service.

[classicman]

On Wednesday, the Congressional Budget Office released its updated long-term budget forecast, which looked surprisingly like the previous version of its long-term budget forecast.

It showed, as one might expect, that if the Bush tax-cuts remain in effect and Medicare and Medicaid spending isn't constrained in some way, the country will topple into a genuine fiscal crisis -- not the fake one the Congress is pretending the country's in right now.

Republicans, of course, seized on that particular projection, and claimed (a bit ridiculously) that it proved the government must adopt their precise policy views: major spending cuts, particularly to entitlement programs.

While all this -- from the findings to the politicization of them -- is perfectly expected, the forecast also presents another opportunity to remind people that the medium-term budget outlook is perfectly fine if Congress adheres to the law as it's currently written. That means no repealing the health care law, for one, but more significantly it means allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire, and (unfathomably) allowing Medicare reimbursement rates for doctors to fall to the levels prescribed by the formula Congress wrote almost 15 years ago. In other words, no more "doc fixes."
Helpfully, CBO juxtaposed these two alternative futures in a pair of graphs and, just as last time, it projects that deficits will disappear entirely by the end of President Obama's second term (if he gets a second term) if Congress were to just sit on its hands and do nothing.

link
Hmmm - so whats all the hub bub about?

[TheMercenary]

Interesting. But you know each side has their bevy of economic experts, all who disagree with each other.

[richlevy]

Unfortunately, the Republicans are threatening to withhold voting on the new debt ceiling unless the tax cuts are extended. Otherwise, I think both sides would be happy to let things run ahead.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by classicman

Hmmm - so whats all the hub bub about?

Because there will always be something the Republicans can hold hostage to keep the Bush tax cuts from expiring.

[classicman]

What is there to hold hostage if there is no problem as the D's are saying?