Social Security Administration Commissioner Michael Astrue said judges (Administ rative Law Judges, ALJs) in his agency

who award disability benefits more than 8 5% of the time cost taxpayers roughly $1 billion a year. (See <a href="http://on line.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052702303812104576440514261188124-lMyQjAxMT AxMDEwMjExNDIyWj.html">http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB1000142405270230381 2104576440514261188124-lMyQjAxMTAxMDEwMjExNDIyWj.html</a> )That is not true. If he is referring to Social Security Disability Insured (SSDI) Benefits, the claim ants have paid into a fund that insures them against disability. Those benefits do not come from the General Fund. They are not taxpayers' money. Also, ALJs do not award $1 Billion a year in Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits. SSI is welfare and does come from taxpayer's funds. Conversely, ALJs who do not pay legitimate benefits to claimants who qualify for benefits are not saving the taxpayers any money. Commissioner Astrue also said judges who deny benefits in 80% or more of their cases end up saving taxpayers $ 200 million each year. That is not true either. Though he said that he wasn't suggesting that was a practice he condoned, he is trying to have his cake and eat it too. Commissioner Astrue's testimony has not changed much, if at all, since he appear ed before Congress in May 2007 and April 2008. (His statements and testimony are recorded in detail in my book, socialNsecurity, beginning at page 443. Availabl e at <a href="www.judgelondonsteverson.com">www.judgelondonsteverson.com</a>) He is still blaming the judges, asking for more money, more judges, and more time to reduce the backlog. Since 2007 the number of judges has gone from 1200 to 150 0 and the backlog continues to grow. And Mr. Astrue continues to make excuses. Mr. Astrue wants to have it both ways. "I find it interesting that there is so m uch wringing of the hands about a judge who pays almost 100% of his cases, as if the agency didn't know about it, as if the agency wasn't complicit in it, as if the agency didn't encourage it," said Marilyn Zahm, a Social Security judge in Buffalo who is an executive vice president of the Association of Administrative Law Judges (AALJ), the judges' union. Judge Zahm had a lot more to say in an interview in October 2009. (Read the enti re interview starting at page 430 in my book, socialNsecurity, available at Amaz on.com or <a href="www.judgelondonsteverson.com">www.judgelondonsteverson.com</a >) It is a bit surprising that Judge Zahm would be so out-spoken, considering the m inimum amount of work she does and the astranomical amount of money she is paid. According to Social Security records Judge Zahm issued only 26 decisions for th e 9 months between September 2010 and June 2011. At a salary of $167,000.00 per year, she earned $6,423.00 per decision. An average hearing lasts about 30 minut es; so, her hourly wage for that period was about $12,846.00. That is a nice sal ary for so little work. However, Judge Zahm is only the Vice President of the AALJ. Perhaps, the Preside nt, Judge Randy Frye, sets a better example. According to Social Security record s Judge Frye issued only 37 decisions for the 9 months between September 2010 an d June 2011. At a salary of $167,000.00 per year, he earned $4,513.50 per decisi on. An average hearing lasts about 30 minutes; so, his hourly wage for that peri od was about $9,027.00. That is also a nice salary for so little work. Judges Zahm and Frye are not unique. During the same period Judge Mark Anderson issued only 3 decisions; Judge JoAnn Andersen issued only 5 decisions; Judge Wil liam King held only 4 hearings and issued 1 decision. He was busy traveling betw een California and Hawaii to conduct the hearings. These statistics came from an SSA report which contains raw data from SSA's Case

Processing and Management System without regard to the amount of time Administr ative Law Judges devote to actual adjudication. In other words, factors which wo uld affect the number of dispositions (e.g., management and administrative respo nsibilities, special assignments, part-time status, union representational dutie s, retirements, deaths or extended leave, etc.) have not been taken into account . Here is what Commissioner Astrue is failing to say. The 1500 SSA ALJs earn appro ximately $167,000 a year each. The salaries of those ALJs is $2 billion 505 mill ion a year. That figure does not include the about $3 billion a year which pays the salaries of the ALJs support staff and Commissioner Astrue's salary and that of his support staff. Also 20% of the ALJs do not hold any hearings. Some ALJs decide 200 cases per month without holding hearings. They award benefi ts in 100% of their cases, trying to "pay down the backlog" like the judge in Hu ntington, W.Va., who awarded benefits in every case he saw in the first six mont hs of fiscal 2011. A GS-9 lawyer could perform the same function at a fraction of the cost. A GS-9 lawyer earns about $40,000 a year. The cost to the taxpayer of 1500 such lawyers would be only $60 million a year. That is much less than the $2 and a half bill ion in salaries to 1500 ALJs. That is where the cuts should begin, not with bene fits to claimants. Just 4 years ago in the middle of the economic downturn there were 1200 ALJs. To day there are upwards to 1500 according to Commissioner Astrue. The backlog of c ases waiting to be heard has not decreased, despite pressure from Mr. Astrue to force the ALJs to "pay down the backlog". Yet, Mr. Astrue keeps hiring more judg es at $167 thousand a year. It appears that Commissioner Astrue is trying to low er the unemployment rate by hiring more judges while President Obama is having d ifficulty creating jobs for mainstream America. Commissioner Astrue can be vague in his testimony before Congress. We can be spe cific as to who the ALJs are and how many cases they decide each month and their reversal rates. See <a href="http://www.ssa.gov/appeals/DataSets/03_ALJ_Disposi tion_Data.html">http://www.ssa.gov/appeals/DataSets/03_ALJ_Disposition_Data.html </a>. A court-by-court analysis of close to two million Social Security Administration (SSA) claims has documented extensive and hard-to-explain disparities in the wa y the administrative law judges (ALJs) within the agency's separate hearing offi ces decide whether individuals will be granted or denied disability benefits. The organization analyzed about 2 million claims heard between fiscal 2006 and f iscal 2011, the report says. "Even within the individual offices there is not a clear consensus among the jud ges about which claims should be awarded versus which should be denied," the rep ort says. (<a href="http://trac.syr.edu/tracreports/ssa/254/">http://trac.syr.edu/tracrepo rts/ssa/254/)</a>