WASHINGTON (AP) — Key posts overseeing the financial health of Social Security and Medicare have been vacant for more than three years.
That leaves the programs without independent accountability in the face of dire predictions about approaching insolvency.
These days Washington is corroded by partisanship and consumed by political crises. Gridlock has become the norm and hundreds of senior government positions remain unfilled.
For beneficiaries and taxpayers the lack of "public trustees" for Social Security and Medicare means a loss of outside supervision of bedrock middle-class programs.
Most Americans may not even realize there are such jobs as public trustees of Social Security and Medicare, but insiders say the special advisers help keep annual financial reports honest by acting as a check on the ever-present temptation for political appointees to tweak the numbers.
