About That CBO “Idea”

| February 1, 2019

Last month (yes, it is now February), an article was posted on the CBO’s proposal for saving money, mostly by dumping it on the backs of veterans. That in itself is bad enough.

We all know there is waste and outright fraud perpetrated by people with flim-flam claims of service they never had, and that some of them have managed to slip through the cracks of the VA’s administrative service. The latest news from Foggy Bottom is that those blue-water sailors who were offshore during the Vietnam War will be able to apply for benefits for exposure to Agent Orange. And we are all aware of someone who claimed disability when he had none and faked it whenever he had a chance.

The CBO’s suggestions on how to save money by dinging veterans seemed appalling, as it should have. While there are fakes and SV clowns who get VADC and/or SSDI, they are outnumbered by those who are truly disabled and cannot work at full-time jobs, and are receiving both Social Security Disability Income and VA Disability Compensation.

The CBO’s idea was to take one or the other away from these people, with no regard to the impact that will have on them. Most of us are on budgets, including me. Retirement income is considered to be fixed income. SSRI is taxable at 50%, which means that Uncle Sam wouldn’t get a penny for taxing it out of most of us. VADC is nontaxable. Other income from things like pensions or IRAs or investments are ordinary income and taxable at a specific rate.

Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which is for people who cannot work and have limited income and resources, is not the same as SSDI, which is taxable. 

SSDI benefits: Sometimes taxable. Benefits under the Social Security Disability Insurance program can create federal tax liability in some cases.  Above $34,000, the maximum percentage of benefits you have to include in taxable income rises to 85%. The corresponding levels for joint filers are $32,000 to $44,000.

SSI benefits: Never taxable: Disability benefits are also available to some people under the Supplemental Security Income or SSI program. Eligibility for this program is based largely on financial need, with strict limitations set on how much you have in other financial resources that are available for you to use to support yourself. In addition, the benefit amount to which you are entitled can be reduced depending on how much income you earn and what the source of that income is.  – Source: Motley Fool  The complete article is here:   https://www.fool.com/retirement/2016/06/05/is-social-security-disability-taxable.aspx

VA Disability Compensation, on the other hand, is nontaxable, but is only offered to veterans, and while there are fraudulent claims registered to get it, the number of veterans who are not engaged in fraud is higher than the number of fraudsters.

I did read the CBO’s actual proposal. While the writer says at the end that it is “only a suggestion”, the amount of “savings” doesn’t make a dent in the actual $4.1 trillion budget. But what I found more interesting was the review of the CBO’s dismal failure in their overestimation of the acceptance of, and applications for, the ACA program and exchanges.

“When the ACA passed in 2010, CBO projected 21 million people would be enrolled in the exchanges in 2016. After the Supreme Court ruled that the Medicaid expansion was optional for states and not compulsory, CBO increased its projection of 2016 exchange enrollment to 22 million as some people who would otherwise have been enrolled in Medicaid in non-expansion states were then expected to enroll in the exchanges instead. Exchanges plans have proved much less attractive than expected as enrollment will average only about 10 million people this year. This means that CBO’s last projection of exchange enrollment before the exchanges opened overshot actual 2016 enrollment by 120 percent.” – Source: Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2017/01/02/learning-from-cbos-history-of-incorrect-obamacare-projections/#2181e9e946a7

The Forbes article is direct and to the point: the Congressional Budget Office’s pencil pushers and accounting forecasters are out of touch with the Real World. Not only did they fail to anticipate that Obamacare’s popularity was far less than expected; they also failed to take into account the possibility that the recovery from the Great Recession would have a grindingly slow pace, taking far longer than the recovery during the Reagan Administration. It did not just lag. It was stultifyingly dismal.

Therefore, their suggestions that any savings should be on the backs of veterans who are receiving both SSDI and VADC should be regarded as grossly inappropriate. If anything, the bloated spending on “favorite” programs in Congress should be viewed with a jaundiced eye.

Despite WaPo’s assertions that CBO is a necessity, it really isn’t.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/06/13/the-trump-administration-detests-the-congressional-budget-office-heres-why-its-important/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.5c7e0d8ec105

It acts only as a shield between Congress and the Oval Office.

Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work"

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2banana

And still…plenty of money for criminal illegal invaders.

And not even a whisper of a cut.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/record-135-billion-a-year-for-illegal-immigration-average-8-075-each-25-000-in-ny

5th/77th FA

FIRST: there will be a 2 part subject to my post. The CBO thinks they can hit the low hanging fruit by way of cutting Veterans benefits. There is less of them, easier to calculate some immediate “savings”, and hey, they are low IQ types and used to being screwed over by the government. Doesn’t matter that the Veteran EARNED any benefit they are getting and would be most hurt by a cut back. Grrrrrr

2nd: 2banana why for you wanna post that linkie? You trying to go ahead and kill me off for winning the Coveted Earned, never Awarded FIRST in the Friday TAH Weekend Open Thread? Do you not understand that my blood pressure doesn’t need to be spiking out on reading this? Double Grrrrr .. Grrrrr! That one really opened my eyes. I knew we as a taxpayer was paying a bloody fortune for deadbeats, n’er do wells, miscreant, criminals, welfare cases, and illegals. I had no clue as to the dollar amount that the illegals were causing. Grrrr

And why doesn’t the gubmint go after this? Hey these are future voters, think of the children. The latest gubmint shutdown was basically a paid vacation for most of them. The amount that President Trump was asking for border security is a literal drop in the bucket compared to the figures we see being wasted. Grrrrr…And again, the cases like WW’s POS brother. Waste a billion here, a billion there, and another billion over yonder and next thing you know, we’re talking real money. Grrrrr

Grrrrr. I’m heading back to my Corner Bar Stool Throne. I have finished my FIRST Stout. Have one of the dickweeds bring me another.

Outcast

As to this dickweed here, I just got back from my walk as prescribed by the VA and enforced by the better half here and my hip hurts so I ain’t walkin anywhere much less to get your Stout besides your stool is at the corner of the bar so the bartender can deliver it and therefore you can open your petrified wallet and pay for it and tip the waiter as my small income here is pert near enough to get me home. Besides where is your respect for us old, fat, lazy, slow folks and before you tell me you are the same as me you aren’t as I am ugly and my mother dressed me funny. 51 years ago was almost a short timer.

David

still think it should be simple: states and/or communities directly opposing immigration law need to loase all Federal funding. I don’t care what the courts say, they are breaking the law and should be penalized. Get it looked at by something other than the moonbeam 9th.

A Proud Infidel®™

We Veterans don’t mindlessly vote D-rat en masse, illegal aliens do! It would be nice to hear about the denizens of The Great Big Whorehouse on the Potomac River cut back on the luxuries they give themselves at taxpayer expense, but I might as well piss into the wind wishing for that. How many millions of dollars were slated to be spent for Nanny Lugosi’s holiday junket to Europe and allegedly A-stan? I look forward to the day when she ends up like RBG, I’m sure thay’ll try to keep that bitch hag alive.

Wilted Willy

I have a great idea! How about they stop paying the $3200 a month they are doling out to my pos brother for all of his SV fakery and throw his ass in prison where he belongs? I’m sure there are thousands more like him who have been bilking the system for years! Nothing would please me more than to see him in a striped suit in the gray bar hotel???

2banana

Is there not a VA fraud hotline or website you could report the facts of this?

Wilted Willy

I have been reporting him for over 2 years, VA, OIG and FBI, nobody cares and won’t even investigate this miserable piece of shit!!

timactual

Why are veterans entitled to two disability pensions for the same disability?

ADA

SSDI can be given for problems that make working hard or difficult, like social anxiety or poor leg blood circulation. VADC is only given if the military broke your body somehow, and the problem is usually much more severe. I think there’s a fairness to collecting both, especially with lost limbs, etc.

Jonathan Mikesell

While disability cuts specifically aimed at veterans didn’t seem warranted, I was more worried about them trying to continue to lower BAH for active duty. ‘Pay’ (in reality, compensation) is the most important retention factor and is also important for recruiting, and cutting BAH both lowers compensation directly and reduces the much-lauded tax advantage (since a greater portion of compensation is then from salary, and therefore taxed). I think that the savings is unrealistic, since such a cut leads towards more missed recruiting goals, lower retention, and lowered entry standards, which cost more in the long run.

ADA

Please delete the former comment, autofill applied my actual name when I did not intend it.

Stan

Every administration suggests something to save money involving veterans benefits. Reducing those of us who get Unemployability benefits to our schedular rating when we reach 65 was the last. They don’t gain traction and they should not. These suggestions have the opposite effect because the entire military and veteran populations (voters) rise up.

MSG Eric

How much would we save each year by cutting the CBO entirely?