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     The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Trump Administration is working on a plan to make it harder to qualify for Social Security disability benefits, apparently by revising the grid regulations. The paper says it has seen a copy of the draft.      You have to wonder who leaked this. Was it someone in the Trump Administration proud of the plan? The fact that this appeared in the Wall Street Journal suggests that. That's crazy since this is bound to be unpopular with far more people than it's popular with. It's also possible that this was leaked by an opponent who wants to make it clear what the stakes will be in this November's election although that seems unlikely. You have to wonder if this, like the assassination in Iraq, is an attempt to curry favor with an impeachment juror .      In any case, there's virtually zero chance this will happen before the election. The provisions of the Administrative Procedure Ac...

     Here is an excerpt from a news release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics issued on February 21, 2019: ... Almost all workers were required to use fine manipulation (97.0 percent) and gr oss manipulation (99.4 percent). ...      Note that Social Security Ruling 96-9p says that  "any significant manipulative limitation of an individual's ability to handle and work with small objects with both hands will result in a significant erosion of the unskilled sedentary occupational base." It seems to me that that it would now be more accurate to say that even the loss of manipulation results in a significant erosion of the entire occupational base, without regard to exertional level and without regard to the distinction between gross and fine manipulation.      I have checked with Social Security. This news release was based on a study done at the behest of the Social Security Administration and is part of the effort to produce a ...