WatchThe conversation in Washington is shifting from taxes to entitlement spending and, in particular, how to slow the unsustainable growth of Social Security and Medicare.
Central to that discussion should be an overhaul of Social Security Disability Insurance, a vital safety-net program for millions of disabled workers. It has gotten too big and too costly. Worse, it has shifted the incentive for those with physical impairments to choose government dependency over work.
Oh, and it will be insolvent in three years if nothing is done.
The program’s $124 billion annual cost is nine times what it was in 1970. Its ranks have swollen to more than 10 million beneficiaries in 2011, or 4.5 percent of the working-age population, up from about 1.3 percent in 1970.
Workers who enter the disability system rarely leave. The Social Security Administration reviews only a tiny fraction of cases each year to determine which beneficiaries still meet the eligibility criteria. Rather than help people manage their disabilities so they can rejoin the labor force, the 1960s-era program cultivates dependency by guaranteeing health insurance and an income for life.
The surest way to lose benefits is by getting a job, because monthly income above roughly $1,040 results in dismissal from the program.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-07/fiscal-fix-should-include-disability-reform.html
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O.K. Everybody turn on everybody at once...
GO!
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Pleasanton, CA
It's like the Roach Motel, they go in but never come out.
Rampant fraud, spending and no controller or meaningful oversight, yeah!!
The economic model for California.
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Call it Crazy says
Very nice, really good sound bite. Is that from Fox or Rush? So why did all those disabled people choose to work the first 35 years of the program and then decide en mass to choose government dependency the last 5? They didn't, of course, but it's makes a nice headline for boomberg.
Try looking at who is going into ssdi and when it has happened. The program has exploded in the last 3 years with long term unemployed who are too young to collect ss itself.
You can't have it both ways. Either the program is being overrun by people who aren't really disabled but have no other options, which is what is happening. Or, disabled people are giving up work to collect ssdi, which there is no evidence of at all.
The irony is one of the big reasons this is possible is republican cuts to enforcement budgets to save money.
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bob2356 says
What are republican cuts? Since when is there a room full of elephants in Washington single handedly passing laws with out the Democrat majority consent? Yeah, it's just stupid shit like that keeps from believing Liberals when they claim they are the ONES with a clear grasp of reality.
The donkey is poking you in the poop shoot while the elephant holds you down. You only notice the trunk and think it's a one man operation, but make no mistake buddy. You're in a gang bang and the Republicans and the Democrats are running a train on your tight ass.
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bob2356 says
What's the difference.... they are both draining the "system". Try doing some research and you'll see, permanent disability has taken over where extended unemployment left off....
The population would rather sit on their asses then get a job..
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bob2356 says
Exactly, they roll off extended UE but are too young to go on S.S., so they pick the next entitlement program to jump on instead of finding a job..
*
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Call it Crazy says
Obama wants it this way. Because government officials know statistics, they know economy is in the hole and people don't have jobs. So if these people will fall off unemployment/disability (mostly fraudulent latter), they will be unhappy voters.
So instead of growing the economy, they just kick the can and extend the benefits for a few more years... and let the next party deal with the consequences.
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Call it Crazy says
What jobs would that be? All the ones disappearing offshore? No one hires people in their 50's that are changing careers. That's just a bunch of hype from people who want to sell retraining courses at a big profit.
Yes people are collecting ssdi by fraud, lots of them. But I don't buy this bullshit that they don't want a job. Just more rightwingbot crap spewing out.
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bob2356 says
Total bullshit cop-out... If someone truly wants to work, they can definitely find a job or work for themselves...
bob2356 says
You really should do some research before spouting off.
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/01/startling-look-at-employment.html
bob2356 says
Why the fraud then if it isn't needed?
Because it's less work to suck on the gov't tit and take the cheese then getting their lazy butts out of bed and go to work...
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CaptainShuddup says
Paging APOCALYPSEFUCK is Shostakovich!!!
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bob2356 says
I'm sure that most can displace a Mexican.
Obligatory:
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It's all Obama's fault!!!
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The people I know on SSDI were already happy not working before going on SSDI. SSDI was just a means to supplement there income of already 2 pensions and 2 401k plans AND WORKING FOR CASH TO HIDE THE ADDITIONAL INCOME. PURE GREED!