Should Congress choose who works for federal agencies? For example:
- Should the administrator of NASA be required by law to be a an astronaut?
- Should the Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust be a lawyer?
- Should the Inspector General of the Department of Defense be an inspector or a general?
- Should the Chief Actuary of the Social Security Plan be an Actuary?
The New York Times is pushing for the Chief Actuary of Medicare or Social Security to be an Actuary. Their rationale is only just plain ridiculous.
It was less than a year ago that government investigators confirmed that the head of Medicare at the time had threatened to fire the agency's chief actuary, Richard Foster, if Mr. Foster shared information with Congress on the costs of the Medicare prescription drug benefit. The Bush administration had arm-twisted votes out of lawmakers by saying the cost would not exceed $400 billion over 10 years, but Mr. Foster's estimate showed that the cost would be $500 billion to $600 billion. That information was suppressed, the drug benefit was passed, and the administration now acknowledges that the cost will be in the range of Mr. Foster's estimates. But no one has been punished.
Mr. Foster fought back and, by staying in his post rather than resigning in protest, prevented the administration from replacing him, possibly with someone who is not even an actuary. A loophole in the law lets non-actuaries serve as chief actuaries at Medicare, Social Security and other agencies.
Thus, we need actuaries so that…what…. they won’t quit to be replaced by non-actuaries? One should, at least, make the argument that only actuaries can do the job. However, this is not likely to be true as many professions compete with actuaries for work. I’d think that certain economists, actuaries, financial economists, demographers could all be chief actuaries. The individual’s competence and backbone is what is important. So let the resume determine who the best qualified person to do the job rather than some protection loving cabal of actuaries who lurk about the halls of Congress checking how many exams one has passed. The loophole in the law is probably not a loophole, but is consistent with other pieces of legislation —leaving it up to the executive branch to draft job descriptions for most jobs.
