Social Security Fundaments

WM: Social Security: Social Security Fundamentals: A Fact-Based Foundation, April 26, 2023

Social Insurance

The most basic foundation for understanding Social Security is the nature of social insurance itself. As I commented to the Subcommittee in December 2021:

The theory behind social insurance has two pillars. One: accidents of birth and family size must be evened out so that unearned gains and unreasonable burdens are not a feature of retirement, as they once were. 

The second is that, because a main feature of capitalism is the transfer of ownership of the products of labor, with a full return for that labor, social insurance returns what was surrendered during working years. 

This is especially the case for lower wage workers that make it possible for higher wage workers to avoid less profitable activities - like cleaning their own offices or serving business lunches. Social insurance restores what society took from them without just recompense. The value of every minute of their lives, on a personal basis, is equal to the value of those who are “more productive.”

Establishing The Trust Fund

In our first submission to Congress in May of 2010, we addressed Trust Fund reimbursement issues. They are particularly applicable given the proposed funding increases in the subject legislation (which, if passed, would continue to have workers subsidize lower income tax rates for the few). They remain especially true today.

When Social Security was saved in the early 1980s, payroll taxes were increased to build up a Trust Fund for the retirement of the Baby Boom generation. The building of this allowed the government to use these revenues to finance current operations, allowing the President and his allies in Congress to honor their commitment to preserving the last increment of his signature tax cut.

This trust fund is now coming due, so it is entirely appropriate to rely on increased income tax revenue to redeem them. It would be entirely inappropriate to renege on these promises by further extending the retirement age, cutting promised Medicare benefits or by enacting an across the board increase to the OASI payroll tax as a way to subsidize current spending or tax cuts.  

The Conservative Nature of Trust Fund Estimates

In 1999, Dean Baker and Mark Weibrot published Social Security: The Phony Crisis in which they eviscerated the efforts by Michael Tanner and the Cato Institute in favor of personal accounts for Social Security. The myth that the program was out of balance is based on the necessity in law to estimate conservatively rather than putting forth the most likely scenario. The latter shows that there is no problem. Their bottom line is that, using the conservative assumptions found in the official forecast, personal accounts would not occur as advertised. Indeed, they would perform even worse than Social Security.

Tax Reforms 

We offer two reform proposals in our comprehensive tax reform plan that will provide for a more equal distribution of Social Security benefits for the future, although if these proposals would make some current beneficiaries better off, they should be applied to them retroactively.

The problems with the current system are that the poor do not get enough and the rich get too much, although in the end, due to bend points, the rich only get what they put in, which drives the demand for personal accounts. 

One oft-cited reform is means-testing. This will only make the call for personal accounts louder. The alternative to means testing is to lower the ceiling of the employee contribution. This seems counter-intuitive - but this is only the case if the employer and employee matches are equal. They need not be. Employer contributions need not be capped, nor should they be tied to income earned. Rather, they should be credited equally. Here are the details:

Individual payroll taxes. A floor of $20,000 would be instituted for paying these taxes, with a ceiling of $75,000. This lower ceiling reduces the amount of benefits received in retirement for higher income individuals. The logic of the $20,000 floor reflects full time work at a $10 per hour minimum wage offered by the Republican caucus in response to proposals for a $15 wage. The majority needs to take the deal. Doing so in relation to a floor on contributions makes adopting the minimum wage germane in the Senate for purposes of Reconciliation. The rate would be set at 6.25%.

Employer payroll taxes. Unless taxes are diverted to a personal retirement account holding voting and preferred stock in the employer, the employer levy would be replaced by a goods and receipts tax of 6.25%. Every worker who meets a minimum hour threshold would be credited for having paid into the system, regardless of wage level. All employees would be credited on an equal dollar basis, rather than as a match to their individual payroll tax. The tax rate would be adjusted to assure adequacy of benefits for all program beneficiaries.

If these options are adopted, the impetus to establish personal accounts largely goes away. Ironically, a more equal distribution on the side of accumulation would make personal accounts workable. Initially, the employer match would be replaced with a broad based VAT, as above. In time, as employee-ownership of the workplace evolves (and it must), funding with a goods and services tax would be replaced with funding with an employer-paid subtraction value added tax. Such a change would nearly be price neutral, although exporters would pay more while importers pay less.

Personal accounts for employee-owners could not be enacted now - as there are simply not enough such firms for this reform to make a difference. That this sector should be expanded is the difference between a widening income divide in the American economy and a more cooperative and democratic economic future. 

A different form of tax reform is necessary to do this - one that involves a tax cut. Currently, when creating employee stock ownership programs, the founder sells his stock to an ESOP Trust fund and gets a tax premium due to the fact that capital gains taxes are not levied on such a sale. Giving shareholders in public companies the same benefit - in other words - a tax cut, will provide the incentives needed to jump start the employee-owned economy.

A further tax reform will facilitate this transition: fully end the “Death Tax” and capital gains taxes (both long and short term) and replace them with an asset value added tax, which is described in the attachment.

Increasing Incomes

The current “school solution” to increase savings to supplement Social Security, as found in Social Security 2100, is obscene. Those who can save, already do. Most cannot do so and giving them tax incentives, even with automatic contributions, highlights the inadequacy of the wages in the vast majority of households.

There are two reasons for this. The first is that the minimum wage has not increased in decades and the tipped wage is not a wage at all, especially when low tipping is not offset by higher wages, as required by law but never enforced (or paid).  To restore the value of the minimum wage to the level it would have been had it been indexed to inflation would require an increase (and I mean an immediate increase) to $10 per hour. This was the counter-offer the Senate Minority made to counter a $15 wage increase until the Senate Parliamentarian ruled that such a reform was not germane in Reconciliation. The Majority Leaders should have taken the deal.

A $12 wage would restore the balance to 1965 levels, which is when the Kennedy-Johnson tax cuts took effect and compensation and productivity were decoupled. An $11 per hour wage with a decrease in full-time hours to 32 per week would have the same impact for workers.

A $15 wage - which is an old number - was meant to be a family wage - and would be $18 to have the desired effect. The other option, one proposed in the President’s Budget, is to increase the Child Tax Credit to pandemic recovery levels (including making it fully refundable), although I would start the phase out at the $85,000 income level, with no credit for households earning over $150,000. The amount of the credit should also be increased with time to $1,000 per month, per child and then indexed for inflation.

The second reason wages are inadequate is the way inflation adjustments are made - which is as an equal percentage increase to all employees or beneficiaries rather than an equal dollar increase. This was an innocent mistake until tax rates were cut on the CEO class. When the government stopped taxing away increased compensation for business owners and executives who cut labor costs, a minor math mistake turned into class warfare from above. It is time to fix this.

Adjusting the minimum wage does not affect the median dollar in the economy, which is earned at the ninetieth percentile of households. This has been the case for decades, and it is why anyone below that level has LOST VALUE to inflation. 

The federal government plays an outsized role in how salaries are determined through percentage based cost of living adjustments to government workers, beneficiaries, government contractors. The government can change this with the stroke of a pen.  

From here on in, adjust for cost of living on a per dollar an hour rather than on a percentage basis (or dollars per month or week for federal beneficiaries). Calculate the dollar amount based on inflation at the median income level. No one gets more dollars an hour raise, no one gets less dollars per hour in increases. Increase the minimum wage as above and consider decreasing high end salaries paid to government employees and contractors. Even without decreases, simply equalizing raises will soon reduce inequality. Why is this necessary?

Let me emphasize: prices chaise the median dollar. The median dollar of income is actually at the 90th percentile, rather than the 77th percentile (which is about where the median is). This strategy will reduce inflation in both the long and short terms as prices adjust to decreases in higher salaried income. 

Attachment: Asset Value Added Taxes Video

Attachment: Social Security and Ownership

Homeland Security Appropriation FY 2024

House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, April 21, 2023

This testimony suggests two programs. The first is to test and then deploy an active denial system in that part of the Rio Grande Valley where fencing is not possible or environmentally appropriate, which should be funded up to $500,000,000. The second is to do a feasibility study of having local boards of elections process immigration reform paperwork, both to fully close the current backlog and establish a way forward, funded at $3,000,000 (essentially ten contracted manyears).

.In 2007, Raytheon was tasked with developing non-lethal active denial technology. Raytheon Company delivered its non-lethal Active Denial System 2 to the U.S. Air Force Aug. 31. Raytheon's Active Denial System was designed to use millimeter wave technology to repel individuals without causing injury. The original contract has long since expired because ground commanders in Afghanistan did not wish to use non-lethal systems. Raytheon has a current One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services (OASIS) contract vehicle Pool 3 Engineering for Military and Aerospace Equipment and Military Weapons, and Engineering for Naval Architecture (GS00Q14OADU328) Contact Ray Moehler, 571-250-1090. 

Much of the Rio Grande Valley has no place to build an immigration fence and thus control the border. When the river is raging, this causes loss of life when people attempt to cross (as does crossing into dessert in other places). The amount proposed would include design and environmental impact activities, however, because the technology is not new, a great portion of the river could be covered with a heat barrier on the far shore of the river so no crossing can be attempted.

With border denial should come reform to regularize people who are already here. The proposed feasibility study would determine whether county boards of elections could be used to clear the backlog of paperwork within CIS for those in the system legally as well as processing those who are undocumented. 

The study team would examine the capabilities of boards of election in every county to process immigration paperwork and make initial determinations on residency, design this process and redesign the current processes in the Departments of Homeland Security and Labor. This is in advance of enacting  any reform legislation. The proposed reform is as follows:

Allow undocumented migrants to apply for the status that fits their circumstances (up to and including permanent residency) without having to meet current lawful status requirements. Once this status is achieved, allow application for naturalization to proceed in the normal course. 

For example, so-called Dreamers would not be given permanent status. Rather, they would be issued student visas. College graduates would be issued H-1B visas. Adult residents who have been here for three years would be issued green cards.

Costs to Boards of Elections to process applications as part of an integrated system would be determined, but the price should be held to $500 per case. This price point is to incentivize applying for regular status.

IRS Budget FY 2024 Tax Season 2023

Finance, The President’s Fiscal Year 2024 IRS Budget and the IRS’s 2023 Filing Season, April 19, 2023

WM: Hearing on Accountability and Transparency at the Internal Revenue Service with IRS Commissioner Werfel, April 27, 2023

It is a tradition to hold a hearing about this time of year concerning the IRS filing season. Perhaps this would be better done after most refund checks have been mailed and the number of taxpayers filing after an extension is known - including their income class.

On the IRS budget, as I mentioned last year, support contractors could be more widely used for customer and information technology services. This would identify the balance of spending to justify the budget request for FY 2024.

Additional analytical resources are required for tax reform initiatives such as Fair Tax initiative and exploration of options due to expiration of the Trump/Ryan/Brady tax cuts.

The repeal of Roe v. Wade makes returning to the Pandemic era child tax credit essential. Increased funding is included in the President’s Budget.

As we have said before, to end the “stink of welfare” that Senator Manchin so objects to, CTC payments should be included with wages for all employees - not just those with three or more children. They should also be distributed through other federal and state assistance programs - some of which can be reduced to do so.

For middle income taxpayers whose increased credits are less than their annual tax obligation, a simple change in withholding tables is adequate. Procedures are already in place to deliver refundable credits to larger families. For the coming year, they merely need to be expanded to all families with children. 

Employers can work with their bankers to increase funds for payroll throughout the year while requiring less money for their quarterly tax payments (or estimated taxes) to the IRS. The main issue is working out those situations where employers owe less than they pay out. This is especially true for labor intensive industries and even more so for low wage employers. 

A higher minimum wage would make negative quarterly tax bills less likely. Indeed, no one should have to subsist mainly on their child tax payments.

Please ask, either orally or in written form, how such a CTC proposal might work and how it would make things easier for taxpayers whose returns would be simpler - with fewer having to file at all.

As usual, we have attached the latest version of our tax reform plan, with a separate attachment on how implementation of this plan would affect IRS manpower. The answer is that the change would be drastic. It would also allow the Committee to focus more on how social welfare is being delivered in general, as well as eliminating current roadblocks to promptly filing for Social Security Disability Income.

Attachment: Tax Reform Videos included

Attachment: Tax Administration Video

Responding to CRFB on the Biden Budget

 The reality is that we really can grow our way out debt - not by keeping the Trump/Ryan/Brady tax cuts in place but by giving more money to working class families, as proposed by the President. The phase out could be lowered, but in doing so the amount should increase for lower wage families. This money will all be spent into the economy, causing growth rather than inflation. Inflation chases the median dollar, not the median income. Cutting high wages and letting higher taxes return, as scheduled, will put us on the same path that Presidents Bush 43, Clinton and Obama put us on when marginal tax rates were increased.

In 2001, tax cuts were partially a response to the tech bust, but mostly due to the pathway of debt reduction. This is because funds that contain debt bonds and securities leverage investments in the speculative economy. The lower the debt falls, especially due to tax increases, the less leverage is available for bad investments such as home loan bonds, the tech boom and the housing boom which was fueled by Wall Street's demand for "safe" investments (that weren't).

In the current economy, the tax cuts that fueled the bond market secured by single family rentals has, again, produced junk and is leading to another depression, where asset prices will again fall below leveraged amounts.

When this occurs, the Biden budget proposals will prop up families with children while letting the wealthy feel the pain. When the next round of bailouts occurs, borrowers should get the benefits promised them in 2008 (which did not materialize). This time, both mortgage debt and credit card debt should be marked to market for any bonds the Federal Reserve purchases to keep liquidity in the economy.

Responding the CFRB's praise of the House Budget proposals

Spending is not what put the budget out of whack. The tax cuts enacted in December 2017 did that. In two years, these sunset automatically. Doing so will grow the economy, as tax cuts do not result in investment in plant and equipment, which is an element of GDP. Putting money into speculative investment is NOT. Indeed, such tax cuts hurt the economy by decreasing GDP as a percentage of total economic activity.

Now is the time to throw the Peterson Foundation under the bus and recognize necessity. Nothing else is responsible pubic finance or good economics. Supply side economics simply does not work if investment in speculative assets is considered savings rather than an element of GDP. The Laffer Curve is correct, however. There is a Laffer Optimum, although the Tax Policy Center has identified it as in the mid-60th percentile - not one-third of it. 

The reason the economy shifted from 2% growth to 3% growth under Obama (as well as under Clinton) was because taxes went up for the rich. Every time they were decreased, a speculative bubble resulted, leading to the Savings and Loan Crisis, the Tech Boom and Bust and the 2008 Great Recession (which was actually a depression because it was asset values that decreased below debt load - not a simple drop in growth.

Any tax rate above 67% decreases collections, but in doing so it stops wage theft by the richest 20% of households at the expense of the working class. When the top marginal rate was 91%, wages were in line with productivity. This is because there was no incentive to cut labor costs in order to garner a bonus - as the bonus would be taxed away.

In 1965, the Kennedy/Johnson tax cuts gave the CEO/Donor class a reason to cut labor costs. Labor piece was destroyed. Unfortunately, when the gold standard and wage and price controls were ended by Nixon, cost of living adjustments were done on an equal percentage basis, rather than an equal dollar raise for every employee. This caused the spread between the bottom 90% of households (the level that kept up with inflation) and the top 10%. IRS data show that Adjusted GDP for each side of that line are approximately equal. 

Inflation in the economy follows the middle dollar, not the median income. 

The best curative for inflation is to increase taxes and limit wage increases in the public employee and government contractor sector to equal dollar raises, while giving the same wage bump to lower wage workers. This will increase affect private sector wages as well and limit inflation as the average dollar in the economy makes its way down the income scale.

If spending is to be cut, then lowering executive pay in the public sector is the place to do so.

Countering China's Trade and Investment Agenda

WM Trade: Countering China’s Trade and Investment Agenda: Opportunities for American Leadership, April 18, 2023 

As an anthropologist, I find the trials and tribulations of Chinese society interesting and a series of comments to both this subcommittee and the Finance Committee demonstrate this. These hearings allow me to update previous remarks, which are attached.

The main reasons the United States must focus on China are that it is one of our biggest providers of goods (and sometimes services - although India leads in that department), as well as graduate students who return home (Indian nationals tend to come over on H-1B visas after graduation from Indian schools) AND because they are a major lender, as well as Japan, to facilitate that trade.

The Chinese have also lent substantial sums to African nations, and others, in their Belt Road project. Reports are that these funds have dried up and China is now attempting to collect what was previously owed as payments become due.

The reason for this shift is that they are having a bit of a financial crisis. China, Inc. had their middle class invest heavily in housing - housing which was unoccupied and substandard. It is also in crisis because of how it responded to the Pandemic, and how it is responding to the lifting of restrictions.

In other words, they no longer have an agenda. They are in survival mode. The last time we tried to limit an Asian nation in its expansion, by cutting off Japanese oil, a World War resulted. Let us not make the same mistake this time.

We need to make small steps and let the emerging Chinese middle class take care of the Chinese Communist Party. This is also the stance we need to take with Iran. 

Attachment - Unfair Chinese Trade Practices, December 2, 2021

Attachment -  Strategic Benefits of a Multilateral Approach to Trade Policy in the Asia-Pacific Region,  June 22, 2021

Attachment - U.S.-China Relations: Improving U.S. Competitiveness Through Trade, April 22, 2021

Commerce, Science and Justice FY24

House CSJ Appropriations Subcommittee, April 14, 2023

I write to request that the budget of NASA funding be increased by a factor of 3. One half of the increase would be used to fund the Artemis program. The other half would be spent on two projects: development of a space elevator and prototyping of a space station to test whether gravity generated by centrifugal force is actually practical. If it is not, then the goal of manned space flight cannot proceed past Artemis until some kind of constant boost propulsion system can be devised.

To pay for this funding, decrease  the appropriations for the Defense Department for RDT&E and Procurement. DoD spending cannot easily be converted to just any sort of program. It must fund a similar industrial base or spending for war cannot be reduced. For this reason, responsibility for funding NASA and the National Space Council would be overseen by the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee as part of a larger committee realignment.

How do we put up a space elevator? Inside the atmosphere there should be two stages. One will be firm, with the other retractable. Both would be designed and built by Sierra or a competing vendor who would develop inflatable modules. Modules would be  filled with helium. The lower, retractable stage would be withdrawn in the event of major storm events that may damage the entire system, including the geostationary station. The entire tube structure will be inflatable. 

Whether the retractable portion is in a single segment, or multiple segments, is a design issue. The lower segment will be assisted by helicopter structures for controlled retraction to the intake station on the Pacific Ocean surface. The upper segment would retract to the upper stable portion. Middle portions would be deflated, separated and parachute to the surface in case of emergency. Chutes would have glide functions and both autonomous and controlled functions for guidance toward recovery vessels outside the weather event.

Construction and reattachment would be accomplished with helicopter structures with rotors arrayed similar to current drone technology, with rotation units at each end, with structures at the mating point inward by one segment from mating points. Segments would be longer than those used for orbital stations. 

If necessary, these structures may be permanently in operation to support and control flexible sections and run by solar power generated (and stored) from the surface or by thorium reactors at the space based and surface portions.

Elevator tubes would transport one or more of the following: Steam, with heating at higher altitudes or gaseous hydrogen and oxygen; and vacuum to move small objects (the universe is full of it).

Steam tubes would be heated at altitude where condensation occurs naturally. Where it freezes, steam could be transferred to an automated section where it is allowed to do so and be transferred to to an additional pneumatic tube (which may also begin at the surface), to travel as cylinders of ice. Eventually, a larger pneumatic would be constructed to transport manned capsules and deflated and disassembled Sierra modules for construction. At some point, to the tube stacks will require some form of magnetic shielding to repel micro-meteorites and space junk.

On the way up the elevator, there will be habitats at lunar and Martian gravity for training and acclimation purposes. Initial construction of the geostationary port will be in LEO. At final construction, station will be lifted with the center of gravity constantly at GSO, with the small boosts as modules are built down as others are built up from the surface.

Centrifugal Gravity Test would contain fixed and inflatable elements. A hard module will be required for docking, power production (or integration from solar arrays) and for flywheel to add or break (and capture energy from) spin.

A series of small diameter Inflatable modules would be attached along two sides of one axis. At the end of each structure, there will be four to eight full size modules for crew attached at a single node for either one or two rings. Axial be modules will be inflated one at a time (on each side) until an optimal distance and rotational speed is discovered for each gravitational be level.

Eventually, should a rotational radius and speed prove viable, the follow-on station (or additions to the original station) would include a larger tube for a magnetic or pneumatic elevator, supplemented by smaller tubes for emergency egress. Additional axis would be added so that rings may be added with Lunar, Martian and Earth gravity habitation. Magnetic shielding will be added and air replaced with water, as above. 

The best first mission to Mars and any mission to Venus or a gas or ice giant should be a ringed station. Call it Orbital JPL. Such stations can do measurements and send probes into atmosphere or, for Mars and Luna, do what Gateway is planned to do - but with gravity and shielding. If we cannot make this work, there is no reason to continue with manned exploration. Even unmanned missions would be a waste of time. A large station in Jovian orbit, however, would be worth the effort.

To more easily fund space within the same allocation, transfer NASA and the National Space Council to the Defense Subcommittee so that reductions to defense research and procurement would be offset with increased budget for space exploration.

Commerce, Financial Services and the Treasury would be established as follows to combine similar functions. Add the Department of the Treasury; Financial Service agencies, including CFTC,  Federal Trade Commission, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (Office of the Inspector General), the National Credit Union Administration, (Community Development Revolving Loan Fund), the Securities and Exchange Commission, Small Business Administration and the United States Tax Court. 

Transfer the Department of Justice and related agencies to a Justice and General Government Subcommittee. The following general government agencies are included: Administrative Conference of the United States, FLRA, Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council, GSA, MSPB, NARA, OGE, OPM and Related Trust Funds, Office of Special Counsel, Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, Public Buildings Reform Board, Selective Service System, United States Postal Service, Payment to the Postal Service Fund and Office of Inspector General, General Provisions, Government-wide.

Agriculture Appropriation FY24

Agriculture, Rural Development and Related Agencies Appropriation, April 10, 2023 

Thank you for the opportunity to submit testimony on the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriation for FY2024. I will focus on the FDA regulatory activities, the Foreign Agricultural Service, adding and removing certain agencies to the portfolio of the subcommittee, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,, providing analysis of the distribution of funds as part of Committee reports and the possibilities of regional government.

Let me repeat that the FDA should both self-support with fees and fund research with licenses for using innovations funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. There is no justification for big Pharma to grow wealthy based on government funded science. The United States should retain the rights to license the production of orphan drugs, letting contracts rather than encouraging entrepreneurship. The prices for recouping private investment is simply too high, which drives up both insurance and drug costs for the public. If there was ever justification for public action, this is it.

The Foreign Agricultural Service is another matter. It is hardly slanderous to note that some of its activities are counter-productive when food is delivered just prior to harvest, thus reducing the price paid to local farmers. The extent to which this occurs is economic warfare. American farmers receive plenty of subsidies without activities that hurt the ability of developing nations to feed themselves. It would be better to send nothing than to continue such sabotage, even if it is unintentional. 

Any food distribution should go to overseas farmers, not to governments or food processors. Additionally, processed foods should not be delivered at all, especially not those foods which have made this nation obese. If anything, subsidies which are paid to American agriculture that contribute to our ill-health should be scaled down and eventually eliminated.

The administration should be transferred to the Agency for International Development and this line item shifted to the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Subcommittee. The funding of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission should also be moved to the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee so that it may be considered for increased appropriations, along with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The jurisdiction of this subcommittee should be expanded to consumer protection and include funding for the following agencies:

1. Consumer Product Safety Commission
2. Federal Communications Commission
3. Federal Trade Commission

If the CFTC appropriation is left within this subcommittee, then it should be granted additional funding to consider the mechanics of collecting capital gains taxes through an asset value added tax with each trade rather than having taxpayers pay these taxes on their personal incomes - which subsidizes loss and which forces asset holding to take advantage of preferred rates. There should be one rate for all liquid transactions. Planning for the collection of goods and sales taxes or tracking commodity transactions as part of the enactment of a Fair Tax must also be funded.

This brings us to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funding. For some people, it is a lifeline, not subsistence.  Individuals without children, though not the intended beneficiaries, are greatly helped. With the advent of higher refundable child tax credits, families will need less assistance. Higher minimum wages should also be enacted (which is the job of other committees). Until then, benefits must go up and stay up for a longer period of time. 

Diets for the disabled and senior citizens, as well as current program participants, are heavier on carbohydrate than is healthy. COVID-19 related inflation (with the economy deliberately idled while cash benefits are provided, as is necessary) is making people hungry, especially those of us who cannot work. The lack of cash benefits within SNAP make buying such essentials as bathroom tissue difficult, leading some to sell their cards at 50 cents on the dollar.

I understand that SNAP was cut so that people who left TANF could not simply shift benefits to SNAP. However, everyone is not eligible, nor do they need TANF. I already possess a Master of Public Administration degree, yet am unable to work. While SSDI provides some assistance, neither SSDI nor OASI are adequate. The removal of additional benefits from the pandemic left many of us worse off, as benefit levels did not raise as much for inflation as the amount cut in high cost jurisdictions, such as the State of Maryland where I reside.

There is a toxic ideology in some circles that hunger is an incentive for self-improvement or work. This is decidedly not true. Give me more money and I might consider seeking an online doctorate. I certainly cannot do anything of the kind on current benefits, nor am I in any position to obtain student loans for this purpose. I would never be able to pay them back in any possible career resulting from further education. This does not mean that I should spend the last week (or two) of every month emptying my refrigerator and cupboards. They should not be bare at any time. While increasing SSDI benefits is the job of the Ways and Means and Finance Committees, having access to Food Stamps, especially those which provide an adequate supplement, are necessary for the vast majority of retirees at current benefit levels. Double the appropriation and that will not be so.

Next we move to committee report information, ...

The vast majority of USDA activities can be attributed to the state and region in which they are performed, including SNAP, packers and stockyards, food safety, animal and plant health, soil conservation, school nutrition and extension services. Headquarters services, the Agricultural Research Service and FDA activities would not be assigned to a region because they serve all regions.

Attachment: Committee Reports and the Budget Process Video