I guess this is the sort of thing you can do when you are all caught up. Despite the fact that Social Security is hopelessly behind in adjudicating disability claims, its new commissioner, Andrew Saul, has ordered the agency to stop hiring workers. Social Security cannot even replace those employees who quit or retired.
You will be heartened to learn that Andrew Saul comes to Social Security with precisely zero background in this sort of work. He used to help run the subway in New York. If he can make the trains run on time, what’s a little impersonating a police officer incident to worry about?
Nothing To Fear . . .
Ah, but fear not. This hiring freeze will not apply to such things as their 1-800 helpline (I am not providing the full number because you should never call it.) If Social Security wanted to reduce their overhead and improve customer service, the first thing they would do is get rid of this operation. I just had a call from a client who reached out to the 1-800 number for an update. Big surprise: they lied to her and said the judge in her case had made his decision. In fact, the judge had only scheduled the case for another hearing. Way to go.
DoubleSpeak Spoken Here
The new spokesman for the new Commissioner actually said out loud that the Social Security “…Commissioner has stated that his highest priority and commitment would be to improve service to the public. . .” To achieve this goal, he is cutting back on the number of Social Security employees. They also announced that War Is Peace and that we have always been at war with Oceania.
And Wait And Wait And Wait . . .
Is it any wonder that people hate government agencies that play games like this while people die waiting for the services they are entitled to? After all, one death is a tragedy while a million is a statistic.
Quick quiz: Did you spot the references to:
• Mussolini?
• FDR?
• George Orwell?
• The movie Casablanca?
• Josef Stalin?
If you did, let me know.
