Obama Budget Request for 2010: Strengthen Social Security

The Obama budget proposes a 10 percent funding increase for Social Security

President Obama’s budget request for 2010—which proposes $3.6 trillion to help pull the United States out of a recession and to begin major new initiatives in health care, energy and education—also includes three key Social Security proposals, beginning with a 10 percent increase in the Social Security Administration budget.

The Obama budget proposes $11.6 billion for the Social Security Administration, an increase of $1.1 billion above the 2009 level of $10.5 billion.

Plans to Increase Social Security Staffing and Services
Obama’s budget request for Social Security includes funding intended to ensure increased staffing in 2010 and to enable the Social Security Administration to maintain or increase service in several areas, such as:

• processing initial retirement and disability claims as well as disability appeals; and
• more efficiently verifying hundreds of millions of Social Security numbers and issuing about 18 million Social Security cards.

The President’s 2010 budget request also provides $759 million for Social Security Administration program integrity, to help ensure that the government is spending tax dollars efficiently and that benefits are paid only to eligible beneficiaries and in the correct amounts.

More Frequent Social Security Wage Reporting?
The Obama budget for 2010 proposes restructuring the federal wage reporting process to require employers to report wages to the Social Security Administration more than once a year.

How would this help? The White House claims that increasing the frequency of wage reporting will “enhance tax administration, improve program integrity for a range of programs, and facilitate implementation of automatic workplace pensions.”

Social Security Helps Millions of Americans
The Social Security Administration pays benefits to more than 55 million Americans monthly. Every year, SSA processes more than 4.2 million retirement, survivor, and Medicare claims; 2.6 million disability claims; and more than 300,000 Supplemental Security Income claims.

The U.S. government estimates that the Social Security Administration can continue to pay full benefits until 2041.

Obama Committed to Preserving Social Security Benefits
President Obama opposes privatizing Social Security — a strategy championed by former President George W. Bush — and has said that he is committed to:

• ensuring that Social Security remains solvent, and
• preserving the program for future generations.

According to the White House web site, “The President recognizes that Social Security is indispensable to workers, the disabled, seniors, and survivors and is probably the most important and most successful program that our country has ever established.”