Social Security fraud

Typical of Republicans. They reduce funding to the Social Security Agency, then grandstand about how the SSA should be investigating fraud more. Of course, if the SSA hadn't been investigating it to an extent, we wouldn't know about these cases. Since this long running fraud was discovered during President Obama's administration, he should get credit for uncovering it. But the Republicans will probably blame the fraud on him. And Rep. Sam Johnson (R-TX) says that they won't get more money because they failed to prevent the fraud in the first place. Typical, wanting something but not willing to pay for it; what they would call welfare mentality. I would be surprised if there aren't Republican members of Congress who have relatives that are drawing disability while managing to do whatever they want to do. Maybe why they don't want to fund it more. Also giving them more reason to claim Social Security is not viable and should be terminated.

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2014/01/17/Social-Security-Cheats-Bilk-Taxpayers-Billions

Brianna Ehley The Fiscal Times
January 17, 2014

Congress is demanding a “top-to-bottom” investigation into the Social Security Administration after a spate of high profile fraud cases have resulted in the loss of billions of tax dollars.

During a hearing Thursday morning, Rep. Sam Johnson (R-TX), the chairman of the House Ways and Means subcommittee overseeing the SSA, ordered the Social Security Inspector General Pat O’Carroll to review the agency’s management practices, adding that it should be the IG’s number one priority.

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The hearing comes just one week after 106 people were indicted for allegedly attempting to defraud the government by collecting more than $23 million in Social Security Disability benefits for which they did not actually qualify. The investigation into the fraud scheme revealed that some of the people indicted were retired New York police officers or firefighters who falsely reported a mental illness stemming from responding to the tragic events of the Sept 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in order to obtain hundreds of thousands of dollars in benefits.

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Last August more than 70 people were indicted in Puerto Rico after a two-year investigation into Social Security disability payments. According to The New York Times, three doctors and a former SSA employee were charged with helping people falsify their applications in order to qualify for the benefits.
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Despite media coverage surrounding the high profile fraud schemes, SSA officials say fraud at the agency is rare. Testifying before the committee, SSA’s Acting Commissioner Carolyn Colvin, told lawmakers that her agency is doing a sufficient job of preventing fraud, but said SSA has been severely hampered by budget cuts and would need more funding.

“If we are to keep the incidence of fraud in the disability program low, we need support from both the public and Congress,” Colvin said. “Continued success also requires a sustained commitment of resources to ensure the integrity of the disability program.” Colvin noted that in the last two years, Congress appropriated $421 million less for “program integrity reviews” than was authorized in the Budget Control Act of 2011.

“The net effect has been the loss of nearly 11,000 employees at Social Security—that means drastically fewer people standing watch for the next attempted theft and drastically fewer people available to serve those who truly need us,” Colvin said.

However, she added that the current omnibus bill that Congress is poised to pass shortly includes full funding of the program integrity reviews, which would help the review process and potentially save “billions of taxpayer’s dollars.”

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“Don’t just tell us about what you did. It’s clearly not been enough,” Johnson said. “And do not just say you need more money when the fact is that Social Security has utterly failed to protect taxpayer dollars in the first place. Social Security must first regain the trust of the American taxpayer before it can credibly argue for more money.” [Crazy idiocy.]