When Big Brother screws up and requires you to fix it, there appears to be little your elected representatives can do for you, even when they try.
I wrote last month about Jeanne Burnett, an 85-year-old widow who received word from the Social Security Administration that she was overpaid for 20 years and had to repay $36,000 or lose her benefits.
Her attorney, William R. Hadley, sent me copies of letters he wrote to Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett, skewering them for not responding to earlier e-mails and letters he sent them asking for help.
He praised Congressman Rob Bishop for responding to his request, even though Bishop's office said they couldn't do anything.
In the end, Administrative Law Judge Nicholas Kuzmack took the case and ruled in favor of Burnett.
Since then, Hatch's office checked the records and found Burnett had contacted them several months earlier. They had contacted Social Security, were assured there would be a hold placed on Burnett's pending punishment and forwarded that to Burnett.
OK, Social Security might have told that to Hatch's office, but the action against Burnett continued until Hadley took Burnett's case to the judge, who stopped the bureaucratic harassment.
Wasn't the first time: A Salt Lake City man, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of Big Brother reprisals, says the same thing happened to him.
He received Social Security disability payments since 2001 because he has multiple sclerosis and received notice that he had been overpaid for seven years and owed the government $10,000.
He too contacted his congressional delegation and received a response only from Rep. Jim Matheson, whose office, like Bishop's, was unable to alter Social Security's Simon LeGreeism.
Like Burnett, our hero got an attorney, took it to court and won the case.
Love thy brother : Orem Sen. John Valentine's call for cordiality at the Legislature sounds nice, but he might want to fan the stench of hatred in his own "holy land" province of Utah County.
The Daily Herald's Dec. 26 story about Palmyra residents asking the County Commission to rescind its earlier zoning-change decision to allow a waste transfer station and sewage treatment plant nearby quoted a spokesman as suggesting the residents had not been given proper notice. It then quoted Commissioner Steve White's response that Palmyra resident Eldon Money, a former state senator, knew when the decision was to be made and could have passed it along.
"For him to play dumb Democrat on me is something I won't accept," White said.
