A scant three months after introducing a rule to make Social Security disability benefit reviews more onerous, the Trump administration is at it again.  On February 24, the Social Security Administration finalized another new rule that will make it harder for disabled workers to qualify for benefits. When the rule goes into effect at the end of April, the inability to speak English will no longer be a criterion for receiving benefits.

Up until now, the inability to speak English was one of various medical-vocational “grid factors” used to evaluate a claimant’s eligibility for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI).  The rationale was:  claimants who can’t speak English may have a harder time finding work that accommodates their disabilities, and therefore need SSDI benefits to survive.  Disabled non-English speakers were not automatically awarded benefits based on their language abilities alone; it was simply a factor in evaluating claims.

“Claimants who are unable to communicate in English have fewer vocational opportunities than claimants with the same level of education who can communicate in English. Understanding and carrying out even simple instructions is harder or impossible when the instructions are conveyed in a language one does not speak.” – Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities, 4/2/19

With the stroke of a pen, the Trump administration has erased that criterion, claiming it will save SSDI millions of dollars – with a potentially steep human cost. The rule could deprive up to 10,000 workers of disability benefits every year, estimates Rep. John Larson (D-CT), chair of the House Ways & Means subcommittee on Social Security.

“For years, Social Security’s rules recognized that for an older worker applying for disability benefits with severe health conditions, and with no or little transferable job skills, the inability to communicate in English poses an additional barrier to work.” – Rep. John Larson

The National Committee has joined the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) in condemning the new rule.  As CCD wrote in a letter to the Social Security Administration:

“There is no justification for this proposed rule… SSA’s plan to implement these changes is flawed, will harm people with disabilities, and will lead to inefficiency in disability claims adjudication.” – Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities

Last fall, the Trump administration sought to make it harder for disabled workers to keep their SSDI benefits by adding a new layer of periodic disability reviews.  As we pointed out in this space, disabled workers – many of whom live alone and do not have advocates to help them – will be required to collect medical records and other documentation every two years to prove that they are still disabled.  This imposes a needless burden on some of society’s most vulnerable citizens.

The pattern is clear:  the Trump administration is on a mission to discourage and punish disability claimants by taking advantage of a common misperception that disabled workers are somehow gaming the system.  In fact, only 40% of disabled workers are approved for SSDI benefits.  These beneficiaries have disabilities so serious that one in five men and one in six women die within five years of being approved for benefits.  Here are just a few of the disabilities that can make a worker eligible for SSDI, none of them minor:

Cardiovascular disease

Respiratory diseases

Musculoskeletal disorders

Cancer

Severe Depression

This is not a population that should have to hurdle extra barriers, erected by an administration that pushed for trillions of dollars in tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations — but shows no compassion for people it deems to be members of the ‘undeserving poor.’

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National Committee president Max Richtman speaks at veterans town hall in Vacaville, CA

National Committee president Max Richtman joined a true champion for seniors in Congress, Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA), for a town hall with local veterans in Vacaville, California on Monday. Though veterans do receive various benefits from the military and the V.A., most still are dependent on Medicare and Social Security for a healthy and secure retirement.

Richtman and Rep. Garamendi made the case that seniors’ earned benefits can be both expanded and strengthened, despite rhetoric from fiscal hawks who seek to cut what they call “entitlements.”

He told the audience that the National Committee has been fighting for legislation in Congress, co-sponsored by Rep. Garamendi, to boost Social Security.  The Social Security 2100 Act includes an across-the-board benefit increase, a hike in the special minimum benefit, and a more accurate cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) formula that would put more income in seniors’ pockets — the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E).  The expansion of benefits would be paid for, in large part, by adjusting the payroll wage tax cap so that the wealthy pay their fair share.  Last week, millionaires stopped paying into Social Security for the rest of the calendar year.

“Right now, if you make more than $137,700 a year, you don’t pay any payroll tax beyond that. The legislation that the congressman supports would begin collecting payroll tax again at $400,000. That brings the program into financial balance until the end of the century, and allows benefits to be improved.” – National Committee president Max Richtman, 2/24/20

The National Committee also endorses a bill introduced by Rep. Garamendi to apply the CPI-E to veterans’ benefits (including military retirement) so that their COLAs would be larger.

A veteran asks a question at town hall with Rep. John Garamendi (Right)

The town hall also touched on the pressing issue of prescription drug costs. Like other Americans, older veterans who do not receive medications through the V.A. health system are suffering from soaring prescription drug prices. Richtman said that the National Committee enthusiastically endorses a House-passed bill, The Lower Drug Costs Now Act (H.R. 3), which would finally allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies.  He pointed out that the Department of Veterans Affairs has been negotiating drug prices for more than two decades.

“The V.A.’s bulk volume prescription drug purchasing infrastructure could be the key to a sorely needed bipartisan pathway toward affordable prescription drugs for those in need.” – The Hill, 2/26/20

An analysis published by the Journal of the American Medical Association found that Medicare Part D could save 38-50% on prescription drugs if it negotiated prices as the V.A. does.  Most of those savings would be passed on directly to patients.

Richtman spent some of the town hall dispelling myths about Social Security, including the falsehood that government is “stealing” from the program.  (One audience member insisted that Social Security was being used to “pay for impeachment.”)  “No one is ‘stealing’ from Social Security,” Richtman says. “Surplus revenue is invested in government bonds that earn interest and put more money back into the program.  If you had a few trillion dollars, would you stick it under your mattress — or invest it someplace safe and earn interest?  The same goes for Social Security.”

Town hall attendee/veteran (L) with NCPSSM president Max Richtman (R)

Richtman appeared at a previous town hall with Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) – another stalwart for senior citizens – on February 21^st in Mill Valley, California, part of an effort to educate and inform voters about issues affecting older Americans in advance of the 2020 election.

National Committee president Max Richtman brought a message of optimism and vigilance to a gathering of seniors in the San Francisco Bay area yesterday.  He joined Congressman Jared Huffman (D-CA) for a packed town hall with seniors and community leaders in Mill Valley, California.  Richtman warned attendees that their earned benefits could be threatened in a second Trump administration, while insisting that grass roots advocacy – and voter engagement – can protect older Americans’ retirement and health security.

The town hall took place just one week after President Trump unveiled a budget plan that would slash half a trillion dollars from Medicare, while cutting $900 billion from Medicaid and $90 billion from Social Security Disability Insurance, which his budget chief once insisted was not part of Social Security.

Watch television coverage of the town hall with Max Richtman and Rep. Huffman here

Richtman told seniors at the town hall that the budget proves President Trump cannot be trusted when he vows to “protect” Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid – as he did during the State of the Union on February 4th, a sentiment affirmed by Rep. Huffman:

“The federal budget is a statement of values: it’s not a tweet, it’s not a speech – it’s the cold hard truth of where you plan to spend the taxpayers’ money. Unlike the president, I’m committed to keeping promises, and I won’t back down when it comes to protecting Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.” – Rep. Jared Huffman, 2/20/20

Both Richtman and Huffman sought to undercut the language of fiscal hawks, who speak of “entitlement reform” to mask their intention to cut benefits.  “Make no mistake,” said Richtman, “Social Security and Medicare are not ‘entitlements.’ They are earned benefits that you paid for during your entire working lives.  Seniors need every penny of those benefits in order to remain financially and physically healthy — and cannot afford benefit cuts.”

President Trump said he’d protect Americans’ earned benefits, but his budget belies those claims

The National Committee has fought for and endorsed the Social Security 2100 Act, which would boost benefits and keep the program on a sound financial course for the rest of the century.  Congressman Huffman is a strong supporter and one of the bill’s more than 200 co-sponsors in the U.S. House.

“The Social Security 2100 Act will provide an across-the-board increase for all beneficiaries, strengthen the Social Security trust fund by ensuring that millionaires and billionaires pay into the system, and improve cost of living adjustments going forward.” – Rep. Jared Huffman, 2/20/20

Rep. Huffman and Max Richtman pushed back against the President’s proposed cuts to Medicaid, which helps pay for seniors’ long term care services and supports.  Even if the Trump budget is, as predicted, dead on arrival in Congress, the administration is actively working to undermine Medicaid through the rulemaking process – including maneuvers to promote harmful block grants and onerous work requirements that could cause older beneficiaries to lose health coverage.

National Committee president Max Richtman and Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA)

Richtman has been engaging with seniors around the country, hearing their concerns and encouraging support for candidates this election year who support Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid — and lowering prescription drug prices.  He heads next to Vacaville, CA for a town hall with Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) and area veterans on February 24th.

President Trump’s just-released 2021 budget proposal would leave seniors and other vulnerable citizens hungrier, sicker, and poorer.  The spending plan betrays the president’s promises “not to touch” Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.  The administration wants to slash $478 billion from Medicare over a decade, which could compromise health care access for millions of seniors. It would gut Medicaid with some $1 trillion in cuts over 10 years, undermining older Americans’ access to long-term care.  Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) also would be slashed. Other cold-hearted cuts include the elimination of grants that feed low income seniors and help keep their homes heated in the winter. Though the budget proposal likely won’t be adopted by Congress, it does reveal the president’s cruel priorities heading into the 2020 election.

“One would hope that in an election year when politicians like to put forward their most popular ideas, the President would understand the benefits of protecting our most cherished income and health security programs.  It’s time he delivers what the American people have been asking for, as indicated by poll after poll, and not the dangerous proposals of his fiscal axe-men.”- Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare 

Among other things, the President’s FY 2021 budget:

• Cuts $478 billion from Medicare over ten years.

• Cuts Social Security [Disability Insurance and SSI] benefits by 90 billion over 10 years.

• Cuts $1 trillion from Medicaid and Affordable Care Act subsidies over ten years.

• Eliminates all federal block grant programs that help to fund Meals on Wheels.

• Eliminates the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)

• Eliminates the Senior Community Service Employment Program

“This budget foreshadows a broader attack on seniors’ earned benefits that President Trump hinted at in a recent interview, when he said that cutting ‘entitlements’ is ‘the easiest of all things.’  Our most vulnerable citizens should not be expected to pay for policies that favor the wealthy and big corporations, most notably the Trump/GOP tax cuts of 2017,” said National Committee president and CEO Max Richtman.

Sign our petition to stop President Trump’s budget cuts!

National Committee president and CEO Max Richtman issued the following statement in response to last night’s State of the Union address:

“President Trump paid lip service to preserving Social Security in his State of the Union address tonight, but obscured his true intentions regarding a program that covers 178 million workers — and which another 64 million Americans depend on for basic financial security.  The President owed it to the American people tonight to honestly explain his plans for the program’s future, including his recent comments that he would consider cutting ‘entitlements’ because ‘it’s the easiest thing to do.’  By failing to be forthright, President Trump empowers fiscal hawks who want to slash and privatize the program, while breaking his campaign promise to protect seniors’ earned benefits. 

In touting a ‘strong’ economy, the President ignores the $1.6 trillion in annual economic stimulus that Social Security benefits provide.  The President should realize that cutting Social Security would hurt the vaunted ‘Trump economy.’

The President also was not forthcoming tonight about his efforts to reduce prescription drug prices.  He has failed to support legislation to allow Medicare to negotiate costs directly with Big Pharma.  His own proposals have been weak, tossed out by the courts, or withdrawn. President Trump has yet to demonstrate a willingness to take on Big Pharma in a meaningful way, preferring to work around the edges.  If our economy is as prosperous as President Trump claims, then why are so many citizens cutting pills or forgoing the groceries they need to feed their families?  We must take concrete action now to lower exorbitant drug prices.  Congress should pass meaningful prescription drug legislation now, and President Trump should sign it into law.

President Trump did little tonight to reassure seniors and their families that he will protect their financial and health security. His administration will continue to favor the wealthy and large corporations, while targeting Americans’ earned benefits and tearing away at the social safety net.  For a president who seeks re-election, he clearly is on the wrong side of these life and death issues.”