The Coming Congressional War Over Social Security Disability

The immediate issue is the fate of the SSDI trust fund, which is expected to become exhausted in 2016. If new funding is not found, SSDI benefits will be cut by about 20 percent for 9 million workers, 2 million of their children, and about 160,000 spouses. 

Until recently, disability advocates were confident that Congress would address the problem simply by shifting funds from the retirement portion of Social Security to the SSDI program. This would hardly be unusual. Congress has transferred money between the Social Security funds frequently over the past half century, sometimes moving payroll tax revenues from the retirement program to the disability fund, sometimes shifting it the other way.  

But yesterday, the House moved to foreclose any transfer back to SSDI. An obscure package of procedural rules approved by a nearly party-line vote barred lawmakers from using retirement funds to support the disability program unless they accompany changes that stabilize the overall Social Security Trust Fund (by cutting benefits, raising taxes, or both). This isn’t the last word. House rules can always be waived and, in practice, often are. But it is a strong signal the GOP leadership wants to use SSDI’s coming insolvency as an opportunity to remake the program.

In recent years, more workers have gone on the rolls. In part, this is because changing demographics have made more people eligible: As the Baby Boomers age, they are more likely to become disabled, and more women have worked enough to be eligible for the program. Those trends should surprise no-one and need to be acknowledged. 

But it is also important to recognize that the program is poorly run. Many people who should not get benefits do. And many who should do not. It takes far too long for the program to process applications.  And the program is a powerful disincentive to work—a problem that should trouble both liberals and conservatives.

DYI Comments:  The entire Social Security program which includes SSDI and Medicare will begin to post massive deficits in the years to come.  Once the 2020's arrive it will begin the major fights over these programs and their costs.  Around 2025 it will be a bare knuckle brawl politically but in the end social security taxes will be raised and benefits reduced for future and current recipients.



DYI