"PREDICTIONS" FOR 2014

No, I am not a prophet nor the son of one.  But with all the guessing, fear and uncertainty going around about the future of Social Security, I want to make a few "predictions" concerning Social Security disability insurance for 2014.
  1. Social Security will not go broke in 2014 and the program will remain functional.  All eligible beneficiaries will continue to get paid in full.  However, the margins of the trust funds will continue to shrink because of Congressional inaction and indecision.
  2. Thanks to the "Affordable" Care Act (laugh track heard here),  Social Security will not get the congressional attention it needs and the agency will remain underfunded and over-worked.  Social Security will be negatively impacted when the business mandates of "Affordable" Care begin.  (There is a laugh track each time "Affordable" Care is mentioned).
  3. The media, once champions of the poor and disadvantaged, will continue to unfairly criticize Social Security as "the new welfare," as they like to call it.
  4.  There will continue to be more talk than action concerning any Social Security program, as far as the US Congress is concerned.  Lots of promises, nothing actually will get done to strengthen Social Security.
  5. It will continue to become more difficult to be approved for Social Security disability as lawmakers, fueled by mostly uninformed media, look for ways to reduce "excessive" expenditures.  Disabled individuals will have to hire attorneys to get benefits when they shouldn't have to.
  6.  Social Security will conduct more "Continuing Disability Reviews" and will attempt to stop the benefits of thousands of disabled individuals.  However, only a relatively small percentage of people will lose their benefits.
  

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