The pandemic has only made things worse, since the system’s 1,230 field offices were shuttered in March 2020. That’s what’s happened at Social Security.
Yet, as I wrote a few years ago, “the best way for any consumer-facing organization’s reputation for quality to be destroyed is for its phones to go unanswered and its offices to be locked and dark during what normal people consider to be business hours.” Underscoring income inequality, America’s billionaires are already done paying their Social Security taxes for 2021.
billionaires are done with Social Security taxes for 2021, but you’ll pay all year And it’s spent with care: The Social Security Administration is one of the government’s most efficient agencies, with a core administrative budget of 0.7% of benefits.īusiness Column: U.S. This looks like an attempt by Social Security’s enemies to undermine the public’s faith in the program, because there’s no earthly reason to squeeze its administrative budget that money comes out of payroll taxes and the system’s other revenue, not from the general Treasury. More to Bethell’s point, it’s true that the Social Security Administration has been systematically underfunded for years, leading inexorably to a decline in customer service. From the account, it’s a few steps to a prompt to have a replacement card mailed out. He might have to create an account first, if he hasn’t done so yet, but the process is not especially burdensome, especially for someone writing a weekly column and other posts for the web. He could do that online, by accessing his Social Security account. In any case, Keillor didn’t have to phone Social Security to obtain a replacement Medicare card. This sort of rhetoric is the instrument of hypocrites and ignoramuses. It’s not only overkill on an unimaginable scale, but minimizes-almost normalizes-the horrifically inhuman realities of Nazi behavior. I treasured the Powdermilk Biscuits T-shirt I bought at the scene for years, until it withered down to shreds.īut leaving aside the strained allusions to Nazi Germany, let’s examine where Keillor’s slur went off the rails.Īs we’ve written recently, equating the inconveniences of modern life, be they mandates to wear a mask or the travails of obtaining a replacement Medicare card, with the Nazi regime is disgusting. That’s true here, too: I tried never to miss a broadcast of the program, owned a two-disc anthology of program sketches and songs, and attended a live performance at (I believe) USC in the early 1980s. Many wrote more in sorrow than anger, as fans of Keillor’s programs and writing. Other advocates and clients of Social Security have also sounded off. (I contacted Keillor for comment on the uproar through the same method but haven’t received a reply.) Keillor wrote back, graciously enough, “An excellent letter, sir, and I admire you for writing it.” He also expressed contrition in varying degrees to readers who wrote him to complain, though he hasn’t amended his original column. Saul presents the opportunity for expanding benefits. Business Column: The firing of a wretched Trump appointee opens the door to expanding Social Securityīiden’s ouster of Trump vandal Andrew M.
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