GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN AVERTED. SS & MEDICARE BENEFITS ARE SAFE FOR NOW.

Well, recipients of Social Security & Medicare benefits can rest easy. The threatened government shutdown was averted as President Obama & Republicans in Congress agreed on 38 billion dollars in budget cuts through October 1 and agreed to leave social & political issues, such as abortion, out of the process.

I heard various analyses of what would have happened to Social Security benefits. NOSSCR, the National Organization of Social Security Claimant’s Representatives, of which I’m a member, provided me with a copy of a letter dated April 7, 2011 addressed to Danieal Werful, Controller of the Office of Federal Financial Management from Michael G. Gallagher, Deputy Commissioner. The letter contained a contingency plan in case of a federal shutdown.

The letter harkens back to the 1996 shutdown when Bill Clinton was president. During those weeks checks continued and new claims were processed. However, other “non-essential” services such as updating earnings records and issuing replacement cards were not provided. Hours were reduced, as well.

Administrative Law Judges would have continued to hear appeals and decide cases but other ODAR employees would have been furloughed. Not sure how that would have worked. I don’t know that the ALJs would have been working the front desk, answering the phone or scheduling hearings. And decision writing was not an activity that would have continued.

Next up is raising the federal debt ceiling.

In the meantime, House Budget Committee Chairman, Paul Ryan, (R) WI, proposed sweeping changes to Medicare & Medicaid. Medicare would essentially be privatized under Rep. Ryan’s plan. Neither program would resemble the current plan. Medicare would become a program where recipients would redeem vouchers with private sector providers. Medicaid would become state block grant program where the federal government would give money to the states to do with what they wish.

And the study spotlight shines this time on a study by the National Cancer Institute on how we metabolize caffeine. Naturally, there is a genetic marker that predisposes humans to crave and handle caffeine or not. Those with one gene function well and presumably are the ones that drink coffee all day and those with the other gene get the jitters (like me) and stay away.