'Getting It Wrong on Disability Insurance'

It didn't take Republicans long to begin their assault on Social Security:

Getting It Wrong on Disability Insurance, by Kathy Ruffing, CBPP: I’ve explained that a new House rule will make it harder to reapportion payroll taxes between Social Security’s retirement and Disability Insurance (DI) trust funds to avert a one-fifth cut in benefits to severely impaired DI recipients in late 2016.  In a revealing statement, co-sponsor Representative Tom Reed (R-NY) says the change is designed to prevent Congress from “raiding Social Security to bail out a failing federal program.”  He’s doubly wrong.

First, far from “failing,” DI has grown mostly in response to well-understood demographic and program factors like the aging of the baby boom, and the program’s trustees have long anticipated the need to replenish the trust fund next year...  Second, DI isn’t distinct from Social Security; it’s an essential part of Social Security.

Social Security is much more than a retirement program.  It pays modest but guaranteed benefits when someone with a steady work history dies, retires, or becomes severely disabled. ...

Statements like Representative Reed’s implicitly attempt to pit Social Security retirement and disability beneficiaries against each other. ...