O and CPI, Ay Yi Yi Yi Yi

    You’ve caught me on a bit of a down, not mentally, more physically… 20 hours of overtime will do that to me.  Pulling overtime goes against my principles of “Simplifying my life” but sometimes I’ve got to invest a little extra time short term to save long term.  The major complaint I have with overtime is the withholdings I’ll see at the end of the week, when all said and done close to 1/3 of my pay is gone before I even see it.  Later when I fill up the gas tank more taxes pulled, then when I buy the odds and ends I need even more taxes.  It may seem I don’t want to pay my “Share” but that’s not true, I don’t mind the deductions at 40 hours of work that’s part of our society but as I go over 40 I’m starting to sacrifice my quality of life and to an extent my physical/mental wellbeing.   These sacrifices are never considered by the bureaucratic machine that sees extra money for the taking.  So it’s up to me to avoid working overtime whenever possible.

    Even at 40 hours it is a bit disheartening to see my “share” being wasted by short sighted bureaucrats.  Then on the infrequent occasion that “money saving” changes to policies are announced, they are often nothing more than accounting tricks that complicate the issue and are little more than smoke and mirrors.   Mr. Obama unveiled his budget this week and again he missed a golden opportunity to put forth a plan that could unify the factions of the political parties, in particular his call for changing the Social Security cost of living increase formula.  The so-called “Chained-CPI” (Consumer Price Index) will reduce future benefit checks by approximately 0.5% (or $5 per $1,000).  To look at it on an individual basis it’s an insignificant amount but it’s causing an uproar within the Democratic rank and file (after all this is one of their Sacred Cows).  I see it as a simplistic reaction generated by a simplistic mind, announced to scare worthy recipients and create another wedge issue.

    Weak managers often resort to the simplest one size fits all measures when confronted with a problem, again this is the path Mr. Obama has chosen.  His “Lets reduce benefits to those that have earned them” approach missed the mark and does little to solve the long term issues within the Social Security system.

    After hearing of his plan I decided to look at what alternatives could have been presented and then of those, what one would be most palatable to both recipients and politicians, of course fraud waste and abuse floated to the top.  After all fraud hurts every person at all levels but then comes the question, how much of an effect does it have.  I started digging around and came up with a Department of Justice .pdf describing cases of fraud, in one year over 51,500 allegations of Social Security fraud were made.  Approximately 33,000 by citizens and anonymous tips, just over 10,000 by law enforcement, 7,500 from SSA employees, and 1,000 from varied agencies and others.

    I look at one random case file, in one year the individual received $38,919 from SSA, an additional $8,086 from state agencies and $23,235 in Medicaid payments for a total of $70,240 (close to double my yearly pay).  It was also noted that this individual was in possession of two other identities and active Social Security accounts… This person could have been raking in as much as $200,000 in a year (if not more).  What was the sentence for this crime, 24 months, with good behavior and being a non-violent crime say maybe 12 to 14 months.  This one case over one year could have affected the benefits of close to 3,400 people who depend on the system to survive.

    The February 2013 static snapshot shows just under 41 million people over the age of 65 are using SSA benefits so if of the 51,500 allegations 12,000 or more are similar to the case I used, there is the savings needed.  Instead of a simplistic solution that doesn’t sit well with anyone, an aggressive campaign to combat fraud could have been announced and he would have gained support from both Republicans and Democrats, it would have been supported by those dependent on the system and those contributing to it.  Guess a unifying call is just a bit beyond Mr. Obama, be it a few or a myriad of choices… Obama can always be counted on to choose the most disruptive, the most divisive, the most unnecessarily painful path.

 

    The crime of fraud needs to be taken serious and the penalties need to be equally serious.  As a mechanic I look for what’s wrong with a machine (little or big problems) and fix them, I don’t limit the machine’s output or restrict its capabilities to cover for its faults. 

Not looking for the easy fix

Looking for the right fix

The TOMCAT

NOTE:   DOJ case info has a few year lag so the actual number of allegations could be varied at this time but with the rapid increase of disability claims over the past 2 to 3 years and the reluctance to investigate allegations (of the 51,000+ allegations, only 7,000+ were investigated, effectively 1 in 7) I suspect fraud is rampant.