THURSDAY, JUNE 9 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A21
CORRECTIONKatrina vanden Heuvel’s June 8 op-ed,
“Jan. 6 hearings won’t match Watergate’s.
They should.” incorrectly stated the Water-
gate hearings were 50 years ago this month.
The hearings began in May 1973.A
s its title suggests, the Social
Security Administration’s “An-
nual Report of the Board of
Trustees of the Federal Old-
Age and Survivors Insurance and Fed-
eral Disability Insurance Trust Funds”
does not make for light reading.
Nor is this actuarial tome usually a
source of good news. In recent years, it
has often projected impending insol-
vency for these giant federal reserves,
dedicated by law to paying hard-earned
benefits to retirees and working-age
adults who are unable to work because
of injury or illness.
Yet this year’s edition documents one
happy development, of interest to ev-
eryone — even non-wonks. It suggests
that, despite the general dysfunction in
Washington, progress can still happen,
however modest, and albeit as a result
of unexpected favorable social trends
as well as deliberate policy.
Specifically, the report estimates
that Social Security’s disability insur-
ance (SSDI) trust fund will remain sol-
vent and able to pay all eligible benefici-
aries for at least 75 years. This is in
sharp contrast to the trustees’ forecast
10 years ago, which had the fund run-
ning out of money in 2016. Media re-
ports warned that roughly 11 million
recipients, disproportionately poor,
could face cuts of up to 21 percent in
benefits that averaged, in 2012, a mere
$1,100 a month.
Instead, the SSDI trust fund’s asset
reserves bottomed out at $32.3 billion in
2015 — then grew steadily to $99.4 bil-
lion at the end of 2021. In five out of the
intervening six years, SSDI took in more
from payroll tax revenue than it paid out
in benefits. There were no benefit cuts.
A small but crucial part of what went
right was bipartisan legislation, signed
by President Barack Obama in Novem-
ber 2015, that authorized a temporary
reallocation of about one half percent-
age point of the combined 12.4 percent
FICA tax from Social Security’s flusher
old-age trust fund to the SSDI fund.
That tided SSDI over through 2018,
and avoided what might have been a
politically devastating wave of distress
for disabled workers — or, more likely,
an embarrassing effort to pay their
benefits by borrowing from the old-age
fund — during the 2016 election cam-
paign. However, it only guaranteed the
program’s solvency through late 2022,
according to projections at the time.
SSDI still faced two structural prob-
lems. One was an aging workforce,
whose oldest members were more likely
to become disabled, yet were too young
to qualify for Social Security’s old-age
program. The other was the program’s
tendency to grow during recessions, as
workers turned to it in lieu of exhausted
unemployment benefits or jobs that
were unsuitable to their abilities, poorly
paid — or, in some communities, had
permanently disappeared. New disabili-
ty enrollment peaked in 2010 in the
wake of the Great Recession.
Yet new enrollment did plunge after
2010 — more steeply than Social Secu-
rity actuaries initially anticipated. Partly
this was due to demography, as the last
baby boomers began to move through
their late 50s and early 60s, en route to
full retirement. A lower SSDI “incidence
rate” appears to be the new normal.
“Over the medium and longer-term,
the Trustees believe disability rates
have been declining and will not return
to prior trend,” says economist Marc
Goldwein, senior vice president and
senior policy director for the Commit-
tee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
Policy changes helped, too. SSDI re-
trained administrative-law judges who
determine eligibility and stepped up
disability reviews to make sure recipi-
ents still qualified. The implementation
of the Affordable Care Act brought ex-
panded health care to the working poor,
reducing an incentive to go on SSDI,
which provides recipients with health
insurance after two years on the rolls.
More broadly, the U.S. economy “ran
hot” through the 21st century’s second
decade. Expansionary fiscal and mon-
etary policy drove unemployment
down, and wages, including for low-
skilled workers, up. Both factors in-
duced people, including many with dis-
abilities, who had previously left the
labor force to return.
More payroll tax revenue for Social
Security was a helpful side effect of
these trends — which the pandemic-
i nduced 2020 recession, steep as it was,
did not reverse.
Now for the not-so-good news. The
SSDI trust fund’s solid condition will
help extend the life of Social Security as
a whole — that is, including both dis-
ability and old-age insurance — but
only until 2035. That’s a mere one-year
improvement since the 2021 forecast.
Medicare is projected to exhaust its
hospital trust fund in 2028 (two years
later than projected last year).
Political reality is such that Congress
will undoubtedly borrow and spend
whatever it takes to keep these pro-
grams going. Economic reality is such
that this would necessarily divert finite
resources from other needs.
Stabilizing U.S. social insurance pro-
grams — permanently — will necessi-
tate structural reform, also known as
higher revenue and lower spending. Be
glad that SSDI may have surprised on
the upside, but wise policymakers
would rather be good than lucky.
CHARLES LANE
A moment
of g ood luck
on S SDI
If the pronoun police of Wisconsin’s Kiel
Area School District were just another
woke excrescence on American educa-
tion, they would be merely local embar-
rassments. These enforcers are, however, a
national disgrace because they are a direct
consequence of federal lawlessness with a
progressive pedigree.
In April, the district lodged a complaint
against three eighth-grade boys for the of-
fense of “mispronouning,” referring to a
classmate using the biologically correct pro-
noun “her” instead of the classmate’s pre-
ferred “them.” This, district officials — sup-
posed educators — said, constitutes “sexual
harassment,” a Title IX violation.
Title IX of the Education Amendments of
1972 was enacted long before Congress could
have imagined today’s progressive dogma
that grammar should reflect, through pro-
nouns, the most advanced thinking about
gender fluidity. Title IX’s operative language
says no person “shall, on the basis of sex, be
excluded from participation in, be denied
the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimina-
tion” in education.
This language has been reasonably taken
to encompass sexual violence, unwanted
touching and such “unwelcome conduct” as
persistent spoken sexual innuendo, stalking,
etc. Now, however, the Wisconsin district,
which is perhaps proud of its progressive
improvising, has made this category of con-
duct elastic enough to encompass mispro-
nouning. The district’s behavior is trickle-
down lawlessness that stems from the arro-
gance and cynicism of the U.S. Education
Department.
Making a mockery of Title IX illustrates
what some progressive theorists call “dynam-
ic statutory interpretation,” meaning law en-
forcement entirely untethered from congres-
sional intent — actually, from law. In 2014,
Catherine Lhamon, an Education Depart-
ment assistant secretary for civil rights, sent
an explanation of a 2011 “Dear Colleague”
letter to people who are in no sense “col-
leagues” of federal bureaucrats: college ad-
ministrators. She directed them to comply
with 66 pages of “guidance” on sexual harass-
ment policies. Many of the policies produced
campus kangaroo courts in which persons —
almost always young men — accused of sexual
misbehavior are routinely denied due process.
Nationwide, accusers are identified, in the
language of prejudgment, as “survivors.” The
accused are denied the right to question
their accusers and can be convicted on a
mere “preponderance of the evidence,” not
evidence beyond a reasonable doubt. By one
recent count, there are more than 700 due-
process lawsuits from victims of make-
b elieve courts on campuses, seeking justice
in real courts.
R. Shep Melnick, a Boston College profes-
sor and co-chair of the Harvard Program on
Constitutional Government notes this:
Lhamon breezily says she resorted to expli-
cating the “Dear Colleague” letter, thereby
evading the Administrative Procedure Act’s
rule-making requirements, because the
66 pages were, in her words, merely “an
explanation of what Title IX means.” Sixty-
six pages of “explanations” that, if not ad-
hered to, can result in federal compliance
investigations and termination of the insti-
tutions’ federal funding.
In 2014, Lamar Alexander, the Tennessee
Republican who was a former university
president and the senator most conversant
with higher education, asked Lhamon who
gave her the power to issue detailed, effec-
tively mandatory “explanations.” With smug
hauteur, she said: “You did when I was
confirmed.”
President Biden has brought her back.
Although a Senate committee refused to
recommend her confirmation as head of the
Education Department’s Office of Civil
Rights, the Senate confirmed her in a
5 1-50 party-line vote. Her progressive spirit
— “social justice” righteousness unre-
strained by law — is on display in W isconsin’s
Kiel School District.
There, the regnant Lhamonism that has
seeped into educational crevices from coast
to coast, and from kindergarten through
graduate school, has resulted in yet another
progressive attempt to supplant free speech
with compulsory speech. Fortunately, the
three middle-school miscreants accused of
“mispronouning” seem to understand that
the best defense is a good offense.
Represented by the Wisconsin Institute
for Law & Liberty, the boys are arguing that
their use of biologically correct, if politically
incorrect, pronouns is speech protected by
the First Amendment. The Constitution also
forbids the district from compelling them to
speak as district bureaucrats suddenly —
how long ago did they embrace this ortho-
doxy? — prefer. Furthermore, the institute
says it has spoken with another Kiel Area
family “whose daughter was recently given
an in-school suspension for ‘sexual harass-
ment’ based on a single statement using an
allegedly ‘wrong’ pronoun — and the state-
ment was said to a third party , not even to
the allegedly ‘misgendered’ student.”
Perhaps Kiel Area schools can waste time
trying to bully children into conformity to
this or that fad because the schools have so
splendidly accomplished their actual task:
education. It might, however, be best if
schools that are eager to engage in pronoun
policing not even attempt education.GEORGE F. WILLThe pronounpolice raid amiddle schoolBY BOB CASEYIam a U.S. senator who has done
something rare in today’s politics:
I’ve changed my position on our
nation’s gun laws. After doing so, I
didn’t burst into flames or get run out
of town. That’s how I know others can
choose to do the same.
As a lifelong Pennsylvanian, I have
always had an abiding respect for one
of the commonwealth’s longest and
proudest traditions: top-tier hunting.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of
Pennsylvanians head to the woods to
hunt white-tailed deer, wild turkeys
and more. The practice is passed
down in families from generation to
generation.
I came to Washington in 2007 with
the firm belief that to support and
honor Pennsylvania’s deep-rooted
hunting culture meant that I should
not support restrictions on gun sales
or increased regulations.
Then, in 2012, Sandy Hook hap-
pened.
Twenty 6- and 7-year-olds and six
educators were killed in their school
by a 20-year-old with an assault rifle,
just before Christmas.
I will never forget the shock, horror
and grief of learning that 26 families
would never see their loved ones
again. I was struck by the stark realiza-
tion that we did not have to live like
this. The idea that more than two
dozen students and educators could
be slaughtered in a matter of minutes
because a 20-year-old had virtually
unfettered access to weapons of war
was too much to bear.
So I changed my position. Now it’s
time for many of my colleagues in the
Senate to do the same.
Our country cannot continue to sur-
render to the idea that gun deaths are
inevitable or unavoidable.Too many politicians in Washington
will tell you there’s nothing we can do
to stop this. They want you to believe
that the most powerful nation in the
world cannot prevent fourth-graders
from being shot in their school, or
Black Americans from being gunned
down at their neighborhood grocery
store. They argue that the gun violence
plaguing cities such as Philadelphia
simply cannot be solved.
Don’t listen to them.
The idea that we should give up and
accept the status quo, or that any
challenge is insurmountable, is con-
trary to the American experience. And
while gun violence is not an issue we
can solve overnight, there are basic
measures we can take to keep guns out
of the hands of dangerous people and
criminals.
First, we should expand back-
ground checks for gun sales and close
the loopholes that allow guns to be
bought online, at gun shows and
through private sales without back-
ground checks. This doesn’t mean a
father won’t be able to give the gift of a
hunting rifle to his son or daughter.
But it does mean a person won’t be
able to walk into a gun show and buy a
gun from a stranger without a back-
ground check.
We should also pass “extreme-risk
protection” laws to temporarily re-
move access to firearms from those
who might be a risk to themselves or
others, while respecting due process.
These simple measures would keep
guns out of the hands of criminals and
dangerous individuals, while having
no impact on everyday citizens’ ability
to buy or possess firearms.
We also need to get serious about
banning weapons of war in our com-
munities. The manual-action rifles
used by generations of Pennsylvania
hunters are vastly different from thesemiautomatic AR-15-style rifles with
high-capacity magazines routinely be-
ing used in mass shootings across the
country. Those types of weapons were
designed to inflict maximum carnage
in a war zone. On May 24, they were
used to murder 9-, 10- and 11-year-olds
at Robb Elementary School in Texas.
No parent should ever be unable to
identify their children’s bodies because
the power of the weapon used against
them made them unrecognizable.
These are not radical or new ideas.
The overwhelming majority of Ameri-
cans support common-sense gun-
s afety laws. There is also historical
precedent for limiting civilian access
to certain types of weapons.
Since 1934, the United States has
heavily regulated the possession and
transfer of fully automatic firearms. In
1986 , Congress also prohibited the
possession of any new fully automatic
guns for the civilian market. And, until
it was allowed to expire in 2004, the
federal assault weapons ban prohibit-
ed citizens from purchasing certain
semiautomatic assault weapons and
large-capacity magazines. Data show
that these measures worked.
The reforms we need won’t stop
law-abiding hunters from teaching
their children the skills their parents
taught them — but they will save lives.
We can preserve hunting culture
while keeping weapons of war out of
our schools, grocery stores, churches,
synagogues and other parts of our
communities.
A decade ago, I changed my position
because I didn’t want to see Americans
dying every day without doing some-
thing about it. I shouldn’t be alone.
Our children are depending on us. It’s
time for the Senate to act.The writer, a Democrat, represents
Pennsylvania in the Senate.I changed my mind on guns.I shouldn’t be the only one.MICHELLE MCLOUGHLIN/REUTERS
Gun-reform protesters march in Newtown, Conn., on June 3, nearly a decade after the Sandy Hook massacre.BY KEONI DEFRANCOo’ahuFifteen-hundred years ago, the first
canoes landed on the shores of our
islands. Our Polynesian voyaging
ancestors stepped out onto the
sands of Hawai’i... and so did their
chickens.
The animals — moa , as we Native Ha-
waiians know them — had been domesti-
cated and transported in the voyagers’
double-hulled vessels, along with pigs,
dogs and canoe crops such as kalo (taro),
’ulu (breadfruit) and ’uala (sweet potato).
Over the following centuries, the Native
Hawaiians, or kanaka maoli , developed a
complex, regenerative and self-sufficient
agricultural system in their new home,
and the moa proliferated. Now, they’ve
proliferated a bit too much for some, mul-
tiplying into our streets and our yards. So
many feral chickens wander Hawai’i,
dropping waste and crowing at all hours
that the government recently b egan a pilot
program to capture them. The high cost —
about $100 per caught bird — drew na-
tional attention.
It’s true our islands are overrun — but
not just by chickens. At least the moa were
invited.
The real endemics in Hawai’i are the
military, the tourism and the rapid influx
of nonlocal property buyers. Beginning
with the overthrow and occupation of our
kingdom by Americans in the 19th cen-
tury, non-Hawaiians have abused these
islands. The resulting pains, including
housing inequity, food insecurity and en-
vironmental degradation, have only
grown sharper in recent years. And some-
how, kanaka maoli always seem to bear
the brunt.
Even our poultry problem can be traced
to colonization. As Westerners expandedoperations in the Pacific, they forcefully
converted our delicately balanced food
systems. Our land, water and labor were
exploited to produce goods for export. Our
self-sufficiency disappeared, and today, an
estimated 85 percent of food in Hawai’i is
imported — including most of the chicken
we eat. That has left the surplus native
moa, forgotten, free to flourish.
Sadly, the same can’t be said of us
kanaka. Today, Native Hawaiians make
up only 20 percent of the islands’ popula-
tion, yet we are 50 percent of the home-
less. The military occupies 20 percent of
the land but, including veterans, accounts
for about 10 percent of the population. It’s
an unsustainable arrangement that has
displaced many of our people: Half the
global kanaka population now live out-
side Hawai’i.
Those of us who remain can easily see
why others made a different decision. We
can look toward O’ahu’s mountains,
where the Navy’s Red Hill storage facility
has spilled an estimated 180,000 gallons
of jet fuel since 1947, including at least
15,600 and up to 33,000 gallons last year.
Thousands of homes were contaminated,
and thousands of people became ill. The
facility continues to leak directly into
O’ahu’s primary aquifer, and it has taken
Honolulu’s main water source, Halawa
Shaft, offline — possibly forever.
But, hundreds of thousands of tourists
each month still pour into O’ahu, drain-
ing Honolulu’s dwindling water supply.
There’s an illusion that Hawai’i relies on
tourism to survive. The complicated reali-
ty is that most of the corporations operat-
ing here are internationally owned, and
the money they earn never seems to trick-
le down. Overtourism instead exploits
our working class; our bleached coral
reefs, eroding beaches and trashed hiking
trails speak for themselves.Meanwhile, the median price of a sin-
gle-family home on O’ahu hit $1.15 mil-
lion earlier this year, a 21 percent jump
from a year earlier, and Hawai’i is already
the most expensive state to live in. But
instead of affordable housing, condos
continue to be greenlighted — including
over iwi kupuna (burial sites), no less —
to create more homes the typical kanaka
family could never afford. These places
are for the nonlocals — who, surprise, are
some of the loudest voices complaining
about chickens harming the value of their
rental properties.
Honestly, we kanaka don’t mind the
moa so much. After all, our kupuna — our
ancestors — are the ’ aina — the land. Our
love of country runs deep because we
understand our genealogical connection
to it. But as housing prices rise and quality
of life falls, it gets harder to stay in our
motherland.
Hawai’i is not Hawai’i without Hawai-
ians. So focus on what will keep us here:
local, culturally rooted economic stimu-
lus. Repaired food systems. Affordable
health care. Affordable housing — maybe
a moratorium of home purchases by non-
locals. Certainly, the speedy defueling and
decommissioning of Red Hill.
A tussle with the moa in our streets?
Not so much.
Besides, how else will we cook our huli
huli chicken? The word means “to turn,”
as in the turning of the chicken over
burning kiawe wood — but also as in the
turning of old systems into new ones, of
shifting and rejecting the status quo. Huli
is what we must do if Hawai’i is to survive
and if our chickens aren’t to outlast the
people who brought them here.Keoni DeFranco is a Native Hawaiian writer,
activist and organizer with Oahu Water
Protectors.It’s true our Hawaiian Islands are overrun.But it’s not just by chickens.