By: Keith Kappes
Columnist
Carter County Times
Thanks to the fearless folks at AARP, I learned this week that the Social Security Administration is trying to justify its poor customer service record by giving advance notice of even more problems in the future.
We Americans should be outraged by the notice that wait times on calls to the Social Security Administration’s national number may increase to an average of 35 minutes and the waiting period for disability claims may even climb to 15 months.
That comes on the heels of a national lobbying campaign by AARP and its 38 million members last year to increase Social Security’s operating budget by $785 million.
The idea that some bureaucrat would try to pretend that the government can’t find additional employees and/or better technology with more than three quarters of a billion dollars is ludicrous and insulting.
It is like what the Internal Revenue Service said recently that its $85 billion funding increase might not result in reducing the 15-month backlog in processing tax returns or making timely responses to taxpayer requests for assistance.
The Republicans in Congress who rail against bigger government and bloated personnel costs at the federal level may find themselves facing the challenge of imposing more congressional oversight.
Those in the federal government who use the phrase “it’s close enough for government work” to explain bad results should find themselves without jobs if the federal apparatus can’t provide needed services to its citizens.
It has been established that about 10,000 people a year die while their disability claims are being processed. That is a disgraceful statistic and should not be tolerated.
The AARP is encouraging its members and others to remind the senators and representatives in Congress that those of us over 50 are the primary beneficiaries of Social Security retirement benefits and we vote in larger numbers than any other demographic.
And that we expect a hell of a lot more effort than we’re getting from too many bureaucrats on the federal payroll.
(Contact Keith at keithkappes@gmail.com)