Posted by Sen. Reid's Staff  on 3/29/2011 - 11:43 AM

I led a rally on Capitol Hill yesterday along with 300 seniors telling Republicans to back off of their irresponsible plan to undermine Social Security. The GOP’s reckless spending plan (H.R. 1) is so extreme that it could force the Social Security Administration to close for a month, which would have disastrous effects for Nevadans who depend on the highly successful social program.

The Las Vegas Sun reported that the GOP spending bill would affect “the speed with which the administration would be able to process applications and payments” and “backlogs can be serious business.” Delays means “several years’ wait for some hopeful recipients,” according to the Sun, and “in Nevada, the average wait time to process a Social Security disability application is still well over a year.”

This year alone, if the Republicans got their way:

•            More than 4,000 Nevada applications for Social Security benefits could not be processed;
•            Nearly 1,500 disabled Nevada workers would have no way to appeal their benefit denials;
•            Nearly 9,500 Nevada babies wouldn’t be assigned a Social Security number;
•            30,000 Nevadans would go to Nevada’s Social Security offices to find the doors locked and lights off;
•            20,000 Nevadans would call Nevada’s Social Security offices and receive no help.

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