President Donald Trump recently named White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney as his acting chief of staff come next year, which seemingly does not bode well for Social Security, especially the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program.
In an article in The Washington Post from April 7, 2017 Mulvaney made it quite clear that he has significant problems with Social Security disability. The article cited an interview Mulvaney gave to the television program Face the Nation to show his disdain for Social Security’s disability program.
“Let me ask you a question: Do you really think that Social Security disability insurance is part of what people think of when they think of Social Security? I don’t think so. It’s the fastest growing program. It grew tremendously under President Obama. It’s a very wasteful program and we want to try and fix that,” Mulvaney said.
If you ask the more than 9 million Americans who receive SSDI benefits, I would guess they would think of disability being a part of Social Security. Disabled workers and their dependents makeup about 17 percent of all Social Security beneficiaries and the modest benefit amount they receive many times keeps them out of poverty.
Mulvaney has used the tactic of separating SSDI from Social Security to his advantage before. In a September 1, 2017 story in POLITICO, author Michael Grunwald chronicles a conversation Mulvaney had with Trump about Social Security and Medicare in May of 2017. The conversation below is taken directly from Grunwald’s story in POLITICO.
Mulvaney: “Look, this is my idea how to reform Social Security.”
Trump: “No, I told people we wouldn’t do that. What’s next?”
Mulvaney: “Well, here are some Medicare reforms.”
Trump: “No, I’m not doing that.”
Mulvaney: “OK, disability insurance.”
Trump: “Tell me about that.”
Mulvaney: “It’s welfare.”
Trump: “OK, we can fix welfare.”
Mulvaney’s claim that SSDI is welfare is a wrong. Every American who works and pays Social Security taxes pay taxes that go to support retirement and disability benefits. If SSDI is welfare then Social Security retirement is welfare under Mulvaney’s calculations.
Mulvaney also said that SSDI is a wasteful program and many Republicans have claimed widespread fraud within the program, but this too is not supported by facts. The truth is there is very little fraud within the SSDI program. Data from Social Security and the Office of the Inspector General shows that the fraud incident rate in the SSDI program is a fraction of 1 percent.
Mulvaney seems to think that by attacking the SSDI program there is no potential backlash. He seems to understand that most Americans don’t think about SSDI benefits and have no use for them until they become disabled, but that possibility is larger than most people think. Before we wage a war on SSDI we should ponder the idea that 20 percent of Americans live with disabilities and that 25 percent of today’s 20-year-olds will suffer a disability before they retire. Despite Mulvaney’s assumptions, millions of Americans think of disability when they think of Social Security.
