A Political Third Rail
Musk has lost his shine with Trump so he has been sidelined. Instead, Musk has become critical of Trump and what he is doing. In this case Musk is calling Trump’s latest “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.” But that is now and Musk is no longer favored by Trump.
Back in March, American Prospect wrote . . .
The sneak attack on Social Security creates new vulnerability for Elon Musk and for the entire Trump project of destroying government.
“Trump’s Third Rail,” The American Prospect
Over Payments: The Social Security Administration (SSA) announced it will increase the default over-payment (more benefits than they were entitled) withholding rate for Social Security beneficiaries to 100 percent of a person’s monthly benefit. The Office of the Chief Actuary estimates this change will result in an increase in overpayment recoveries (i.e., a program savings) of about $7 billion in the next decade.
As of March 27, the agency will begin mailing notices about the new 100 percent withholding rate, rather than the recent adjustment of just 10 percent. The withholding rate change applies to new over-payments related to Social Security benefits. The withholding rate for current beneficiaries with an overpayment before March 27 will not change and no action is required. The withholding rate for Supplemental Security Income overpayments remains 10 percent.
People who are overpaid after March 27 will automatically be placed in full recovery at a rate of 100 percent of the Social Security payment. If someone cannot afford full recovery of their overpayment, they can contact Social Security at 1-800-772-1213 or their local office to request a lower rate of recovery.
Additionally, people have the right to appeal the overpayment decision or the amount. They can ask Social Security to waive collection of the overpayment, if they believe it was not their fault and can’t afford to pay it back. The agency does not pursue recoveries while an initial appeal or waiver is pending.
Project 2025: The blueprint for so many of Trump’s assaults on government, calls for making Medicare Advantage the “default option” for new enrollees. This commercial insurance product captures private profit at public expense. Medicare Advantage policies are far less efficient and far more vulnerable to manipulation at the expense of patients than traditional public Medicare. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (not a bunch of radicals) have detailed $83 billion a year in Medicare Advantage over- payments through manipulating diagnosis codes to make patients look sicker. Herding relatively healthy seniors into Medicare Advantage also weakens public Medicare, setting up future cuts as fiscally necessary.
The Medicaid program: Is mainly for the poor, actually serves some 79 million people, and upwards of 1 resident in 3 in many Southern counties. Its biggest single use is to cover nursing home care for the elderly, which includes lots of parents of middle-class people, in red states as well as blue ones.
In short, if Democrats do their jobs, Trump is very vulnerable on all three fronts, whether he goes after these three landmark programs frontally or by stealth. Democrats have had a rough few weeks, both rhetorically and tactically. Surely, they can unify around the simple proposition that Trump and Musk are undermining popular programs that serve most Americans in order to finance tax cuts for the rich.
Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, in a Friday House floor speech, gave a pitch-perfect rendition of how Democrats should be talking.
“Your Social Security benefits are your hard-earned benefits,” she said. “They don’t belong to billionaires like Elon Musk.”
A couple of weeks ago, James Carville wrote a much-disputed op-ed piece suggesting that the Democrats should play dead in the budget negotiations. If the Democrats can’t unite behind a strategy of spot-lighting Trump’s threat to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, they will not just be playing dead.
How does the rate of recovery of overpayments save $7B over 10 years? Is it more rapid recovery from beneficiaries who might die with an unrecoverable balance? Also, what kind of situations result in overpayments? The one situation I read a lot about earlier this year was a continuation of payments after death until the reporting caught up in the system. How quickly you recover those probably shouldn’t bother too many people although if the recovery is through spousal benefit, it could.
Eric:
The first thing which comes to mind is loss of earned interest on a balance. The 100% recovery seems to be a bit harsh as many people may not be able to survive not having any monthly SS income.
Just some thoughts.
I think the nature of the overpayment seems important. Paying someone $100/month too much for 4 years would merit a pretty gentle recovery. Send a beneficiary their “check” twice one month by mistake and sure, get it all back the next month. This seems like pretty common sense, but might not be easy to implement.