one side of that debate is argued by virginia of nasi and lisa ekman. the other side was taken by economist richard burr conger and mary daly. you'll also find a blue evaluation form in your packet and we really appreciate it if you would fill that out and return it to a nasi staff member before you leave today. we also encourage you to pick up copies of other nasi resources which are available at a table outside the meeting room. so, to begin i'd like to turn to steve goss. steve? [applause] >> thanks for setting this up and have the opportunity to talk to you all about social security disability programs, which i assume everybody in the room and hopefully who is hearing and seeing this event from elsewhere knows that social security does the program not reserves almost 9 million disabled worker beneficiaries in a country, and another couple million people who are children and spouse dependence of those disabled workers, so it's a big program answers a lot of people. and what i can really speak to probably most effectively and hopefully usefully is the

one side of that debate is argued by virginia reno of nasi and lisa he can land. the other side was taen by the economist richard burk houser and mary daly. you'll find a blue evaluation form in your pact, and we would appreciate it if you would fill it out and return it to a staff member before you leave today. we also encourage you to pick up copies of other nasi resources, which are available at a table outside the meeting room. so to begin i'd like to turn to steve goss. steve. >> thanks, mark, virginia and pam for gives us the opportunity it to talk about the social security here. i assume everybody ndz that the social security disability program serving almost 9 million disabled workers in our country and another couple of million people who are children and spouse dependents of those disabled workers. it's a big program that serves a lot of people. what i can speak to probably most effectively and usefully is the first of the two questions today. one people are applying for social security benefits. let me address that in the context of the projections that

nasi's increases public understanding of how social insurance contributes to economic security.rance program currently provides income support to more than 9 million people with disabilities and their family members, a total of more than $9.5 billion in benefits monthly. the number of people receiving benefits has increased significantly over the past several decades. 6.5 million people receive benefits at as recently as 2005 and a 1995, the number was almost 4.2 million. the disability insurance trust fund is projected to be exhausted in the near future, as soon as 2016 according to cbo and 2018 according to the 2011 social security trustees report. journalists, researchers in congress have focused a great deal of attention on the growth in the number of ssdi beneficiaries. a number of questions have been raised about the program. does the growth reflects demographic trends and changes or is the growth due to ssdi program rules and policies? what is the role of the recession in the growth of ssdi? is ssdi becoming the new unemployment insurance? is ssdi fundamentally sound and

. >> thank you, and thanks to nasi for setting this up. i'm glad to see a great crowd here. so so far we've heard from steve about the financing and the history of the ssdi program, which i think is the issue that is really bringing us here, and things look a little better in the future than they have in the past. and i agree with that. we've also heard from lisa that ssdi program is extremely important for people who are beneficiaries. and i would agree with that as well, but i have fundamental disagreements with lisa on the issue of the structure of the program. and it's not just the ssdi program although, it needs to be seen in the context of the larger disability policy your so i'm not going to focus on ssdi, i will talk about it but i'm going to talk about why i think the social security, i'm sorry, the disability policy in general is appealing. and i will rush over fairly quickly, a number of ideas for reform, not enough time to look at all of them. but then i will also close by saying we are really not ready for reform and we need to do things in a measured way to mov

and thanks to nasi for setting this up, and i'm glad to see a great crowd here. this is terrific.so so far we've heard from steve about the financing and the history of the ssdi program which, i think, is the issue that's really bringing us here. and that, you know, things look a little better in the future than they have in the past. and i agree with that. we've also heard from lisa that ssdi program is extremely important for people who are beneficiaries, and i would agree with that as well. but i have fundamental disagreements with lisa on the issue of the structure of the program, and it's not just the ssdi program alone, but it needs to be seen in the context of the larger disability policy picture. so what -- i'm not going to focus on ssdi. i will talk about it, but i'm going to talk about while i think that the social security -- i'm sorry, the disability policy in general is failing people with disabilities, and it's also failing taxpayers, and is i'm going to brush over fairly quickly a number of ideas for reform. there's just not enough time to look at all of them. but t

i believe you can also find presentations and other resources about today's event at the nasi website probably sometime this week i guess at nasi.org. and thanks to everybody. [applause] [inaudible conversations] >> this saturday at noon eastern on c-span2's booktv. join our live call-in program with distinguished former navy seal and author chris giles as he talks about his life from professional rodeo rider to becoming the most lethal sniper in u.s. military history. at 10 p.m. on afterwards -- >> if you think of yourself as a family and you think of yourself as a team, she said when i get a raise at work, he so proud of me. it's like we got a raise, our family got a raise. but i felt as though she have redefined providing to include what her husband does and she had a lot of respect for what her husband was doing. >> on the changing role of women as the breadwinners of the famine and how that impacts their lives. also this weekend america the beautiful, director of pediatric nursery at johns hopkins, compares the decline of empires past with america and shares his thoughts on what