Ok, I'm a "math person" -- and quite accustomed to seeing statistics used to prove a person's point of view (all you have to do is look at the news -- a Dem-leaning station will use numbers to PROVE one thing, a Rep-leaning station will use the SAME numbers to PROVE the opposite thing).

I really don't think that is what Janke is trying to do here. The POINT is that your BEST shot for getting approved IS on your FIRST try. Janke is saying, IMHO, that the system isn't "broken" because it DOES "usually" make the "right" decision on the first try (at least from what the statistics show).

Initial claims 3,295,806 claims cleared; 34% approved. Total approved 1,120,574 = 69.78%

Reconsideration 819,710 cleared; 12% approved. Total approved 98,365 = 6.12%

Hearing 662,765 cleared; 58% approved. Total approved 384,403 = 23.94%

Appeals Council 103,271 cleared; 2% approved. Total approved 2,073 = 0.12%

Court 13,271 cleared; 3% approved. Total approved 398 = 0.02%

HOWEVER, I would RESPECTFULLY disagree -- in that at the hearing level, 23.94% seems like an AWFULLY high number of people to have "fallen through the cracks" from the reconsideration level of 6.12%. I think that THIS is what has so many bewildered, upset, and dismayed.