romina? >> i'll take a stab at this. i think in many ways it's interwoven with the social security benefits in general where one party stands on the position that no matter what, no benefit cuts, and they define benefit cuts in all sorts of interesting ways. so many of these proposals that would return people to work, some people would say that this is a benefit cut, that they are due this benefit for the rest of their lives and we should not put anytime limits or anything that could potentially do any harm to individuals, even when what we're really trying to do is to help them be independent. the other issue, i think, is that disability is a much, much smaller program than social security retirement program and is much less understood. it is highly complex. and lawmakers, many lawmakers don't understand if very well. and so they fear getting involved with the program. they might make a mistake. there are only a few that have shown leadership and willingness to learn about the program and really lead on these issues. wi

romina. romina boccia: i will take the first data this. i believe that disability politics are interwoven with the social security politics in general where one party stance they defined benefit cuts and all sorts of interesting ways. many of these proposals that would return people to work, some people would say that this is a benefit cut. benefit for this the rest of their lives and we should not put any time limits or anything that could potentially do any harm to individuals when what we are really trying to do is help them be independent. i think is that disability is a much, much smaller program that social security retirement program and much less understood. it is highly complex and many lawmakers don't understand it very well. and so, they fear getting involved with the program that they might make a mistake. there are only a few that have shown leadership and willingness to learn about the program and really lead on these issues. with the reallocation of money from the retirement trust fund to the disability trust fund, it takes

so let's start with romina. >> thank you, terry.he bipartisan budget deal that passed last week did one thing right. it prevented automatic benefit cuts for disability beneficiaries. but it failed to make substantial reforms to make the program work better for the beneficiaries that it serves and also for the taxpayeres who fun it. it only included very minor changes to deter fraud and reduce overpayments in the disability program. beyond that it also included one demonstration project to test out a reform proposal that some believe will increase work participation among disability program beneficiaries. my remarks today will explore this demonstration project in greater depth and in particular i will try to answer the follow questions. is this policy change so promising that it was worth congress putting all of its eggs into that one putting all its en that one basket for the budget deal. was this the best one that congress could have chosen? and the answer to both of these is a flat-out no. demonstration projects exist to test and

so let's start with romina. >> thank you, terry. the bipartisan budget deal that passed last week did one thing right, it prevented automatic benefit be cuts for disability beneficiaries. but it failed to make substantial reforms to make the program work better for the beneficiaries that it serves and also for the taxpayers who fund it. it only included very minor changes to deter fraud and reduce overpayments in the disability program. beyond that, it only included one demonstration project to test out a reform proposal that some believe will increase work participation among disability program beneficiaries. my remarks today will explore this demonstration project in greater depth, and in particular i will try to answer the following questions: is this policy change so promising that it was worth congress putting all of its eggs into that one basket in the budget deal? and among all of the policy options available for which congress could have authorized demonstration projects, was in the best one that congress could have chosen?

>> romina, you want to take that one?the longer we wait, the more likely it will be some type of tax increase fix because you're going to get to a point where the shortfall is imminent and any policy reforms that you can possibly adopt, unless you're willing to cut benefits abruptly and steeply, which seems very unfair, and nobody really wants to do, you're going to have to raise taxes or take the money from somewhere else. right now, the money is being taken from somewhere else. but in the end, it is, you could see it as just another portion of the tax increase that is to come, because if you're thinking about the last reform effort in social security that was in the '80s, there was a massive tax increase, and there were some small reforms. small reforms that, in today's environment, i would actually consider big reforms, like raising the retirement age that probably are small reforms considering the vastness of the problem, but since we haven't had any reform at all in today's context, these would be big reforms. so we

romina? >> i'll take a stab at this.ds on the position that no matter what, no benefit cuts, and they define benefit cuts in all sorts of interesting ways. so many of these proposals that would return people to work, some people would say that this is a benefit cut, that they are due this benefit for the rest of their lives and we should not put anytime limits or anything that could potentially do any harm to individuals, even when what we're really trying to do is to help them be independent. the other issue, i think, is that disability is a much, much smaller program than social security retirement program and is much less understood. it is highly complex. and lawmakers, many lawmakers don't understand if very well. and so they fear getting involved with the program. they might make a mistake. there are only a few that have shown leadership and willingness to learn about the program and really lead on these issues. with the reallocation of money from the retirement trust fund to the disability trust fund, it takes urge