You can't trust this administration

Kissweb reminds us that you can't trust this administration on anything. I thought that to myself as I was reading this article in today's NY Times. A centerpiece of Bush's thrust against illegal aliens is to have the Social Security system send out over 100,000 letters to employers alerting them to the names of their employees that don't match with the social security numbers those employees are using. The letters have already been prepared. Also, to be included in the mailings is a flier warning the employers on the penalties they will face if the discrepancies aren't resolved within 90 days. A federal court has enjoined the Social Security Administration from including the fliers with the letters on the ground that it was likely to injure legitimate citizens (e.g., women who hadn't notified the Social Security Administration of a name change after a marriage or divorce).

The Social Security Administration is arguing that to remove the fliers will tie up its systems so badly that it won't be able to process new retirement or disability claims for the next several months, thereby inconveniencing thousands of innocent people.

Cry me another whine. This is obviously just one more time that the Bush administration is petulantly trying to get its way around the Courts by lying. If the Social Security system can't pull 141,000 fliers out of the mailings without cutting off benefits to its legitimate customers, something is dead wrong. Hell, I could easily round up a team of part time student workers who could do it in one day, even if they had to steam the envelopes open. But, as I understand it, the envelopes aren't even stuffed yet, so this should save them work, not cost them extra time.