America's Disability Predicament

[de novo]

Below are some excerpts from a report about our nation's disability spending.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government ... e-Combined


�Since the economy began its slow, slow recovery in late 2009, we�ve been averaging about 150,000 jobs created per month,� said Joffe-Walt in an Public Radio International (PRI) �This American Life� interview. �In that same period every month, almost 250,000 people have been applying for disability.�

The federal government spends more money each year on cash payments for disabled former workers than it does on food stamps and welfare combined;

America�s two largest disability programs, including health care for disabled workers, costs taxpayers $260 billion a year


In some parts of the country, such as Hale County, Alabama, one out of every four working-age adults collects a disability check


As of 2011, 33.8% of newly diagnosed disabled workers cited �back pain and other musculoskeletal problems� as their reason for being unable to work.� In 1961, the top reason for being disabled was �heart disease, stroke�


Disabled workers do not get counted in the unemployment figures. If they did, the numbers would be far higher


Less than 1% of people who went on disability at the beginning of 2011 have returned to the workforce


The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program�which covers kids and adults�has exploded.� SSI is now seven times larger than it was 30 years ago.

 

[jos3ywales]

no one wants to work because they have a little pain, they think they should get a free ride. Now don't get me wrong there are people that truely need it but by gosh if I can build moble homes for 11 years in a dang wheelchair then alot of ppl need to get off there sorry lazy buts deal with a little pain and work fpr what they want instead of a free ride from the Government to buy the beer drugs and ciggs

 

[timberjack86]

no one wants to work because they have a little pain, they think they should get a free ride. Now don't get me wrong there are people that truely need it but by gosh if I can build moble homes for 11 years in a dang wheelchair then alot of ppl need to get off there sorry lazy buts deal with a little pain and work fpr what they want instead of a free ride from the Government to buy the beer drugs and ciggs

Wow! I know a lot of people around here that have disability because they say they are crazy.Makes me sick!

 

[Wildcat]

no one wants to work because they have a little pain, they think they should get a free ride. Now don't get me wrong there are people that truely need it but by gosh if I can build moble homes for 11 years in a dang wheelchair then alot of ppl need to get off there sorry lazy buts deal with a little pain and work fpr what they want instead of a free ride from the Government to buy the beer drugs and ciggs

Wow! I know a lot of people around here that have disability because they say they are crazy.Makes me sick!

I know several of those people that say they are "crazy". I also know the truth about those several, they all have a drug habit. When they are on their meds they are fine but once they are off and go back to drugs they are nuts.

One of them took a union job helping build a dam not far from here. He was paid $27 an hour. He quit 2 days later and went back to smoking pot and he's back on disability AGAIN.

 

[FLTENNHUNTER1]

The system is on the verge of collapse because of all the freeloaders. We are in serious, SERIOUS trouble. It's just a matter of time until the house of cards falls.

Pray for our country.

 

[de novo]

Says 14 million are on disability currently in America. That comes out to over 250,000 per state.

Another way to look at it is if every resident of Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee received a disability check then that would equal 14 million. More unsustainable liberal policy.

 

[Crappie Luck]

I work with two different guys at Lowes that only have one leg. If they can get up everyday and go to work, then just about anyone can.

There are people who need disability. I'd guess it's about 2% of those currently collecting it.

 

[buckaroo]

I know of a couple of people who have been drawing disability and I know they should work, one of them even works out with weights in a gym.

 

[savageman]

disability seems to be under the radar politically. I have never heard a politician say we need to reduce disability.

 

[caretaker]

Find someone who will hire me and I will give up my disability. I had a job and all I had to do was pass cdl stress test. Failed it and was sent to hospital for 5th bypass on widowmaker had number 10 heart attack month later and was told by doctors I needed to apply for disability. I am now up to 13 heart attacks but will go back to work for reasonable pay and benifits. Something better then 1300 and medical a month. Yes I know there are those abusing the system but it hurts to be thought of in a lumped group. By the way saw cardiologist yesterday and my meds are fighting a loosing battle.

 

[waynesworld]

The reason we do not have any politicians trying to fix the disability program is because it is not an easy fix. It is in theory a great program. But because the abuse it gets a bad rap. I know a lot of people that are on disability that should not be. But I know first hand of some that really need it. But I think there should be some different categories of people on disabilities. I think if you were involved in an accident or have a medical condition that is not caused from your negligence then we should try to do what we can help. For the people who want to fry there brains with drugs and other things we should have a different program that is not the same as regular disability. To tell you the truth the regular disability needs to be improved. The people that think that a person can go by the rules and live independent with any great quality of life they need to look at the rules. Now I know there are some that manipulate the program and live better then others.

 

[de novo]

This is the problem with entitlements. Everyone has their sacred cows that should be exempt from reform. Problem is we have more people getting milk from the cow than we have feeding the cow.

 

[Diehard Hunter]

Here is what chaps me about disability. My father was crushed from the waist down when 3 tons of lumber and forklift fell on him. His left femur was crushed so badly they payed two steel rods on either side of it and ran bolts through them. He had five different back surgeries to fuse vertebrae. The doctors told him he would never walk again. After spending most of a year in the hospital in traction, he made liars out of them. After that he had a spinal cord stimulator installed to block the pain, had heart valve replacement and quintuple bypass surgery after he dropped dead in the living room and my mother revived him.

The federal government denied him disability! He finally got his disability after three years of court battles, and give 1/3 of the money to a lawyer.

Fast forward a few years. I had a pair of post hole diggers dropped on my foot, causing me to end up with a screw in my big toe. The doctor told me immediately I qualified as 13% disabled. A woman down the street had a drinking and drug problem. She had found a psychiatrist that diagnosed her with depression. She got 100% disability on the first try.

It killed my dad to draw that check because he had a work ethic, but his body simply would not allow it. The woman down the street is still drinking hers up every month as far as I can tell, happy as a lark to have the tax payers pay for her booze and drugs. As for me, I laughed at the doctor and told him the standards were too lax!

What we need is investigation and enforcement to catch the people abusing the system, and elimination of certain disabilities from the current qualifications.