NPN benefitsBlog

Economic Stimulus Payments to People Who Get SSDI and SSI

Vice President Joe Biden and Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, announced on March 26th that the federal government will send out $250 economic recovery payments to people who receive Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits beginning in early May 2009 and continuing throughout the month. No action is required to get the payment, which will be sent separately from the person’s regular monthly payment.

SSA Fact sheet on Economic Recovery Payments.

RSA Changes Draws Blind, Disabled Protestors in DC

The Washington Post reports that blind and disabled Americans rallied outside the front doors of the Education Department yesterday to protest the Bush administration's plan to reorganize the Rehabilitation Services Administration, the largest federal program helping states provide job training to people with disabilities.

Bankruptcy Passes/ Minimum Wage Defeated

Conservatives in the Senate defeated Sen. Ted Kennedy's (D-MA) bankruptcy bill amendment on Monday to raise the $5.15-an-hour minimum wage. Kennedy wanted to increase the minimum wage by $2.10 over the next 26 months. An alternate proposal, by Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) – who has voted against minimum wage increases "at least 17 times in the last 10 years," was "salted with pro-business provisions" and fell by an even wider margin. While Kennedy's amendment "sought only an increase in the minimum wage," Santorum expanded his proposal to include regulatory rollbacks for big business and tax breaks for the restaurant industry. Santorum's amendment also would have "changed the rules so that fewer workers were protected by minimum wage and overtime laws."

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Will Baby Boomers Drown in Debt?

The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College has just released aother one of its Just the Facts: Will Baby Boomers Drown in Debt? by Mauricio Soto. The report looks at the increasing potential of credit debt to undermine the retirement security of America's aging population. The author examines trends in the debt burden for older workers over the past decade and assesses how vulnerable baby boomers may be in the future.

Les Miserables Revisited: The Fugitive Felon Project

Remember Les Miserables, the great epic novel by Victor Hugo? The main character, Jean Valjean, an ex-convict, is pursued all his life for the petty crime of stealing a loaf of bread to feed his hungry family by the punitive and self -righteous Inspector Javert. Eventually Valjean is "caught" and the judge throws the whole thing out. but not after the thing consumes Valjean's (and the Police Inspector's) whole life. Hugo's story is about moral redemption and misguided justice.

Today we are dealing with a modern day Inspector Jeverts through a federal program called the Fugitive Felon Project passed by Congress in 1996 as part of the welfare reform bill. The law was passed to corral fleeing criminals on public benefits by matching names on various public welfare programs with names on felony warrants around the united States. If a match comes up then the public benefits are suspended without a lot of due process. Most of the people cut off are not fleeing felons or dangerous; for the most part are mentally ill. Only about 1 out of 10 involve violent crimes and the outstanding warrants are usually for probation violations.

The scope of the computer dragnet to catch criminals is about to be expanded to Social Security retirement benefits- -- without any debate. What seems to be driving the program seems to be the Congressional Budget Office projections that the law would save some $588 million in Social Security Retirement and $199 million in Medicare because those targeted "would be afraid to use the system".

No one argues that criminals should not be removed from public benefit programs, but the program has serious problems in its enforcement. Many people with disabilities have been caught up in the sweeps do not have the resources or ability to fight back. The computer matches apparently do not distinguish between serious felony charges and allegations that have been dropped or routinely reduced to lesser crimes that are not felonies.

Republicans Discover Deficits Are Caused by Runaway Domestic Programs

The "debate " on the record deficit has slowly shifted after President Bush's inauguration. Concern for the deficits are wiggling their into the highly partisan discussions about privatizing Social Security. With the debate on tax cuts and Iraq War safely tucked under the Republican's belts and off the table for any real debate, conservatives are starting talking about the huge debt (as though they just discovered it) and ways to reduce it with a new vigor. The buzz among the Beltway Republicans is about reducing "runaway entitlements" like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Advocates for people with disabilities are looking for some real struggles in '06 as the Bush Administration works to balance the budget through massive cuts and "spending restraint" in domestic programs.

Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg of New Hampshire commented in press reports over the weekend: "This is going back to our roots as the Republican Party. "A lot of the people who support us expect us to be fiscally responsible." Apparently he said this with a straight face. One wonders where this concern was before the election as the massive tax cuts and high costs of a unplanned Iraq war ran up the debt. Observers like DisabilityBenefits Blog remember this time last year when the Bush Administration and its pundits even denied a deficit existed.

The LA Times has an interesting piece on the way the Bush Administration avoided applying the existing concepts of fiscal restraints to run up the debt but now plan to reduce essential programs under the guise of fiscal restraint.