I just heard on the radio that the waiting time for many people to get their disability payments just jumped from 2 months to 6 months, thanks to Trusk’s furloughing of thousands of Social Security Administration employees.
Gotta be a lot of face-eating leopards in that.
GOP Rep. Gary Palmer (R- Alabama) Says ‘We Need To Remind’ Trump That ‘Congress Has a Role’
I don’t think that is true. I have heard of no such furlough. To the contrary, huge groups (possibly the majority) of SSA employees have been declared ineligible for the “deferred resignation.” “Furlough” is a specific term of art, and there have been no furloughs.
Not sure exactly what “the waiting time for many people to get their disability payments” means, but I have not heard of any increased delay. To the contrary, I’m pretty sure processing times have consistently been decreasing across the board. It is possible some sort of delay happened somewhere, but I doubt it.
Not any more. They abdicated that when they declared Trump the God Emperor.
Is that to get a payment or the initial determination? In either case, it couldn’t possibly have jumped up that much in a month. According to this it’s been seven months since 2023
It does: Rubber stamping everything Perfect Leader decides. You have to have at least $5-Billion* in order to have any input to this new world order.
* And kick the the appropriate amount to PL, of course.
It would be nice to have a President who didn’t need to be reminded of these things. Representative FuckFace here surely supported the candidate who clearly cared not a bit about what role Congress would have during his reign. So, he can kindly go jump in a lake.
Yeah. Poor (in so many ways) 'Bama never though the leopard…
[posted on another – I think – thread]
UAB alone has received more than a billion dollars in NIH funding in recent years, AL.com’s John Archibald reports. UAH also receives NIH funding, university spokesman Russell Nelson said Saturday but couldn’t say how much.
A billon here. A billion there. Pretty soon, you’re talking about real money.
Well, that’s depressing, but at least you know; thanks for sharing it.
Deciding that the guy at the top is the puppet of smarter behind-the-scenes guys isn’t limited to Republicans, of course. To be fair, neither Biden nor Trump have ever in their lives been known as giant intellects (outside the cult in the case of Trump, anyway).
(I hope the rest of your time with the folks was less…unpleasant.)
I wonder how many death threats he’s gotten from MAGA.
I think we are going to see this play out with the funding bill in March. Congress will flail around for a week or so. It will be a shitshow. Then the Project 2025 guys will present their own budget because they know they are smarter than those idiots. Trump and Musk will say “pass it or be primaried”. If Congress (and by that I mean the Republicans) do this, then they are no more than a rubber stamp for Trump. Maybe some of them would start to realize that it’s actually their jobs on the line and resist. Probably not, though. It really seems that a majority of at least the representatives have no idea what their job even is.
Well, most of them see their job as collecting large sums of money from corporate and other 1% donors.
What they have yet to realize is that if Congress is irrelevant–if it’s Trump who does all the decision-making on regulations, taxes, etc.–then the donors aren’t going to bother handing cash to the Senators and Representatives any more.
Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me.
Fool me three times, Make America Great Again!
The county where the penny blank factory is located went 83% for Trump
But nary a word about a second scoop of ice cream, right?
Remind him? They’ve already shown him and the rest of the planet their role is to roll over and play braindead.
He’s nickel and diming them into obscurity.
I thought RFK Jr. was the one who merged with the Worm
This was on Wisconsin public radio news, specifically about federal SSN employees in Wisconsin. I’m sure you are right that “furlough” isn’t the correct term (my mistake), but surely that is a nitpick — the overall, important point is that removing SSN workers on whatever way, shape, or form will cause longer delays for important services (the piece doesn’t specify the time frsme for the “two to six month wait time” change):
Well, Kentucky is having his face eaten. I wonder who Kentucky voted for.
Kentucky distillers sent more of their whiskies and other spirits north than to any other country. Exports to Canada were valued at about $90 million, according to a 2024 report by the Kentucky Distillers’ Association.
“These tariffs,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear told MSNBC on Sunday, “would be devastating to my state.”
This will be true for pretty much every government service you can think of, not just social security. Fewer tax returns will be audited by the IRS, meaning more cheaters will succeed, and more cheaters will feel emboldened to cheat (and if there’s a problem with your return, the wait for help will be longer). The same goes for the EPA and its work: we should expect more deliberate flouting of regulations, and slower, more chaotic responses to acute environmental disasters.
Thanks for the link. I don’t think that says what you previously stated.
You suggest nits are being picked, but I suggest that correct terminology and facts are all the more important these days, as the specific legal authority creating various federal entities and programs is critical, not to mention who (exec/legis/judic) has authority to control/direct/eliminate such entities and programs. This is all taking place in the context of “WHAT IS LEGAL.” And the practice of law - if nothing else - depends on the careful and specific definition of terms.
Your link provides no discussion of what the person quoted meant by, people living with disabilities have seen wait times grow from two to eight months for approval of their benefits.. Is that time from initial application to initial review? From request for hearing to favorable decision? From favorable decision to first check? SOME clarification is important. Moreover, as someone who has worked w/ SS disability for nearly 4 decades, my clear impression is that wait times and pending applications have consistently decreased at all levels of review, and are at or near all time lows.
So I ask for any evidence that there has been any increase in wait times. AND, if there has been, that it was related to reductions of staff (by whatever means.)
Back in the 90s I believe, I was subject to a potential furlough. A furlough is a very specific action, requiring specific process. Perhaps some folk have been furloughed by Trump, but I’m not aware of which of his efforts reflect furloughs. To be clear, the proposed (and delayed) deferred resignations ARE NOT furloughs. (I presume you agree that it makes a difference whether someone quits or is fired? And ought such situations be described accurately?)
Speaking of deferred resignations, your link does not mention that the vast majority (if not all) public facing SSA employees have been ruled INELIGIBLE to participate in the deferred resignation. From an internal email:
On January 30, 2025, SSA received new guidance from OPM that exempted SSA front line service employees from the deferred resignation program, consistent with the exemption in the President’s hiring freeze Executive Order. Therefore, employees who work in the listed offices for the following components are not eligible: in the Office of Operations (DCO), field offices, teleservice centers, program service centers, workload support units, and the Office of Central Operations; in the Office of Hearings Operations (DCHO), hearings offices and National Service Delivery organization; in the Office of Analytics, Review and Oversight (DCARO), Office of Quality Review (OQR) field sites and the Office of Appellate Operations (OAO); and in the Office of the General Counsel (OGC), the Office of Program Litigation.
That is a HUGE portion of SAA staff, and AFAICT, just about EVERYONE involved in determining eligibility and keeping checks flowing, who are ineligible.
Today - for the first time - I saw in the paper that many VA employees were similarly ineligible. I’ve been disappointed that such intra-Agency classifications have not been reported previously. So the FORK YOU emails may have been sent to 2 million employees, but only a much smaller percentage of those 2 million are eligible to participate (IF it is upheld. Which I believe it should NOT be, as several aspects of it lack legal authority.)
I didn’t realize until I read this article how big one of our local (Milwaukee, WI) breweries is in Canada.
The owner said if the tariffs hurt their sales in Canada, they might start making beer there (instead? in addition to?).
Another local brewery mentioned that they’re concerned about the price of aluminum (cans) spiking.