Tom Coburn

What we ought to be working on is the other 93 percent because even if you do what he wants to do on tax breaks, you only affect 7 percent of the deficit.

Through the Chair, I would ask the Senator, how did he vote on the tax extender package coming out of the Senate Finance Committee? Because that is the real test of whether the Senator wants to reform the Tax Code. As I recall, the Senator…

I would ask to have a back-and-forth real debate on this, recognizing us both, with the Senator from Florida controlling the time, if he has no difficulty agreeing with that. One of the reasons I came out is I don't agree with the…

So anecdotally you are seeing some change in compliance back to the directions that you put out in terms of your directives.

What would happen to APB 23? It would not be applied, would it?

We have to change that code. We have to change those rates. We have to make it simpler.

It calls blatantly and honestly for tax reform in this country.

The Congress has created this situation. Our problem is we have the highest corporate tax rate in the world.

But you are much better. You are a judge--the point being that is key medical evidence that is recognized worldwide as a standard with which physicians make judgments all the time.

But your testimony still is you do not have the capability to find the outliers through your management system.

I guess then that is my question. Why would that not be part of the management system of the ALJs and the Social Security Administration to not track the four or five or ten outliers out of 1,500 to know when you have a problem and correct…

Three cases wrongly decided is $1 million, on average.

Well, does it make sense to limit the ability of ALJs?

Were any of you shocked that you could not use that anymore? Did it cross your mind that, 'Here is a tool that may help me decide a case accurately that I no longer am going to be able to utilize'?

Late evidence ought to be considered in a thoughtful, intelligent way and not because it is just immediate to the hearing.

Is this really expert testimony when all we are doing is reading the statement by an expert and answering one question?

I think to go back, Mr. Chairman, one of the things that has happened is we have seen a large percentage of people, given the severe dip in the economy, that were at that age group that were operating with significant disabilities now…

So how did our judge in Oklahoma City do 1,500 and 1,600 a year?

I just want to go back to one of the things that--we are concerned about high denials as well as high approvals.

In a Congress that is often divided on partisan issues, this is a unique Committee.

I do have a significant concern about a key recommendation to mandate a government representative at all disability hearings because I fear that it would lead to an adversarial process.

OK, but what I am asking is why haven't you developed valid data at the judge level?

The Supreme Court has said that the Social Security Act calls for the agency to operate 'as an adjudicator, and not as an advocate or adversary.'

The Social Security Trustees have concluded that the disability insurance program may go bankrupt in 2015.

So I understand this, because I am going to be on this for the next 4 years, you are saying, given previous case law and the Bellmon Review, that you are prohibited from actively managing quality parameters of ALJs. Is that what your…