There are few people who benefits more and have done more to earn those benefits that people who receive SSDI. These are people who have become disabled and who have paid premiums from every paycheck throughout their entire working lives. Now Republicans are moving to gut the funding for the benefits they have earned.
Fellow Democrats, after an extremely demoralizing off-year election cycle for our Party, in a time where there have been so many issues and arguments that have divided the Party into bickering factions and niches, a line has been drawn in the sand that should unite Democrats of all stripes to a common rallying cause. Protecting Social Security from those who would destroy it. Social Security is under deliberate and malignant assault. The deranged extremist fringe far-Rightwing ideological zealots of the House Republican caucus have decided to deliberately engineer a Social Security crisis. No matter what your issues with the Democratic Party, now is the time to set aside other matters and begin to come together for the greater public good.
A huge number of Social Security beneficiaries are disabled Americans and other non-Retirees who would be in dire crisis without the aid of a vital part of the most important program within the American Social Safety Net. On Tuesday, the Republicans in the US House acted like the predatory cowards and gutless worms that they are and created a rule that would prevent clean reallocations to fund the nation’s Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). This, like the deliberate sabotaging of the US Postal Service by creating forces that no other agency or arm of the US Government has to deal with, is the kind of cancer you get from Conservative Republican reigns of error and terror. This is a wake-up call to rally. All of us. United together.
Let us be clear. "Reformers" are never people acting in blatant bad faith and with malice of intent to their actions. Damn the Village, and Social Security Saboteurs, and walk a wall for the sick, the poor, the eldery, and the disabled. There is no "good" Social Security and "bad" Social Security, there is only Social Security. The Republicans are not interested in "reforming" Social Security, they want to destroy it and use the lazy "both siderisms" of the Village news media to obfuscate their actions and their agenda. This is a manufactured crisis. Pure and simple. It is also a challenge to Americans of good faith who support the Safety Net. Time to stand up.
Here we have an act of deliberate political terrorism and social sabotage that is being carried out to disrupt the lives of Americans in crisis and on the margins. We must all say "HELL NO!" … [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Daily Kos>
I could not agree with this author more. This is not the first time that Republicans have attacked SSDI. During the Bush Regime, his gutted the Social Security Department, so there were almost no employees to review SSDI claims. He also made it standard practice to deny most valid claims until a lawyer appealed the claims all the way to the top, in the hopes that the claimant would die before resolution, rendering back benefits moot. It transformed a process that took weeks into one that took years.
It took me over three years to get SSDI. During those years I ate mostly rice and beans. Veggies were a treat. Meat was a rare luxury. I went without several basic needs. I often had to decide between food and medicine. On three separate occasions, I had to pull one of my own teeth, because there was no money for a dentist. When my case finally got to the judge, he said it was so obvious that it should have been approved on day one. He did not even require testimony.
Now I’m past SSDI and am now just a retiree, so I won’t be effected by this Republican atrocity. However, I don’t want others to suffer, as I did. Please contact your Congress Critter.
Every penny that is spent in earned benefits to the poor and middle classes is a penny Republicans can’t spend as welfare for billionaires.
24 Responses to “Republicans Declare War on Disabled Americans”
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Dear Heaven – there is nothing that the revolting Repuglicons will not do to make people suffer – and picking on the old, the sick, the weak, the disabled, just seems to add more to the fun to them – they disgust me utterly!
(The Repugs seem to go out of their way to do the very OPPOSITE of what Christ said – Matthew 25: 35 – end "Whoever does this to the least of these [feed the poor, care for the sick], does so to me…" – how can anyone with any intelligence who also has a conscience ever listen to them – they are deliberately wicked.).
Pat, I am sure they don't understand any of Christ's teaching. He was a liberal, they cannot abide that.
I am not surprised. SSDI is needed. However, people do not know how difficult it is to get permanent SSDI. There are always political issues that arrive that affect people who receive SSDI…one state has developed a new program that gives families a place to live and pays utilities/electricity/ but you can only work 20 hours per week. And, they do nothing but harass you. I was not a recipient but it is a poor ass program. I worked for Social Security…Disability….and that was a real irritation to me….as attorneys represent whom they want and attorneys outside of Social Security are rudel, lie and threaten and harass good legal assistants…I have proof. Those claimants without attorneys are at a disadvantage because attorneys pick and choose their clients and do not do so fairly. One attorney's legal assistant called me and demanded that I put one of their cases ahead of my non attorney represented claimants…when I looked at the case it was not even at my level to do anything with yet. SICK attorneys ruin our social security fairness as far as disability. SSDI DOES KEEP MANY PEOPLE OFF THE STREET AND GIVES THEM A HOME. WE ALL DESERVE FAIRNESS. THE PROBLEM IS NOT GETTING RID OF SSDI BUT MAKING SURE THAT SOCIAL SECURITY DOES NOT PLAY POLITICS. SSDI IS QUITE POLITICAL ..IF YOU ARE A VOTER AND HAVE POLITICAL FRIENDS YOUR SSDI IS EASIER TO GET….IF YOU HAVE COUNSELORS THAT ARE POLITICAL SSDI IS EASIER TO GET. WE NEED TO STOP POLITICAL INTERFERENCE IN SSDI AND HIRE BETTER PEOPLE WHO WILL NOT PLAY FAVORITES. PLAYING FAVORITES IS RAMPANT IN SSDI AND DISABILTY. i HAVE PROOF. AND YES THERE ARE FEW EMPLOYEES THAT CARE AT ALL FOR SSDI RECIPIENTS AND I HATE REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS AS BOTH OF THEM ARE PROTECTING THEIR FAVORITES.
THE SYSTEM IS RIGGED. IF YOU ARE PERFECT AND YOU ARE DISLIKED THEN THEY MAKE IT HARDER FOR YOU. IF YOU HAVE ALLLLL OF THESE PROBLEMS AND ALSO MAKE UP PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS IT IS MADE EASIER. ALSO, IF YOUR DOCTOR KNOWS HOW TO DOCUMENT YOUR MEDICAL YOU CAN GET SSDI AND DISABILITY WITH NO PROBLEM AT ALL. SOME DOCTORS ARE USED TO CASES AND KNOW HOW TO GET PEOPLE DISABILITY….BELIEVE ME THIS SYSTEM IS NOT FAIR. I WAS TOLD I WOULD HAVE TO BE IN A WHEELCHAIR TO GET DISABILITY WITH MY BACK INJURY THAT I WOULD NOT LET DOCTORS FUSE MY SPINE. I WENT TO WORK FOR SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILTY AND YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE WHO GETS DISABILITY. WOMEN ARE ALSO AT A DISADVANTAGE…IN THIS SYSTEM. SOME ATTORNEYS AND SOCIAL WORKERS WORK TO GET MEN SSDI AND DISABILITY BEFORE WOMEN. IT IS THE TRUTH. I ENDED UP WORKING FROM 199O TO 2004 WHEN I RETIRED AND DURING THAT TIME IT WAS LUCKY THAT I DID NOT END UP PARALYZED AGAIN. IN 1991 TO 1992 MY BACK L5 S1 WAS SO BAD I COULD NOT WALK FOR 15 MINUTES OR STAND. WITHIN THREE MONTHS I WAS BETTER…SIX MONTHS I WAS MUCH BETTER…BUT BECAUSE I WOULD NOT ALLOW A FUSE OF MY BACK I WAS DISCRIMINATED AGAINST …….I MANAGED TO GET TO RETIREMENT ….I WAS ASSAULTED IN 2003 AND MY BACK WAS MADE WORSE SO MY DEGENERATIVE ARTHRITIS AND BACK ARE ALWAYS A PROBLEM..ALTHO I NEVER DID BECOME SOME DRUG ADDICT ON ANY NARCOTIC……..ONCE A PERSON IS DOCUMENTED AS BEING DISABLED…..FOR THOSE DUMMIES AROUND ME…EVEN IF YOU DO NOT RECEIVE DISABILITY AND MANY DO NOT…ONCE WE HAVE DOCUMENTATION THAT WE HAVE A DISABILITY WE ARE CONSIDERED LEGALLY DISABLED. I HAVE PROOF. I WAS EVEN DISCRIMINATED AGAINST BECAUSE I WANTED TO LIVE IN SENIOR HOUSING….AND I AM DISABLED ALSO….I HAVE TO BE VERY CAREFUL NOT TO LAND MYSELF IN A WHEELCHAIR AND ON THE OPERATING TABLE FOR MY BACK.
Welcome Pamela. 🙂
It may be that some places are like that.
I also fought for almost 3 years to obtain Social Security Disability. I ate a lot of Ramen noodles with frozen mixed veggies in them. I almost lost my home. My injury was on the job so I had 2 battles on my plate.I was finally awarded Disability and they messed up my paperwork and told me I had to pay them because I earned too much fro Workers' Comp. Someone entered an extra zero on the amount of money I was receivingfrom Comp. Big mistake! They wanted me to pay back almost $1,000 for Medicare. What? I got the flu which developed into Pneumonia and couldn't afford to go to the doctor. I called SSA in another attempt to straighten things out. By the Grace of God, I reached a wonderful woman on the phone. After almost an hour of explaining while she went through my file, she said I was in the clear and they owed me 3 years back benefits. I cried, in between my coughing and wheezing and blowing my nose. I couldn't thank her enough. To me she was an angel. None of the others to whom I spoke would even give me the time of day. They all argued with me and wouldn't look at the documentation. "The computer doesn't make mistakes". Duh! In May I will be 65 and will get regular SS but I wouldn't want anyone to suffer like I did.
When I posted a petition on FB to stop this atrocity from happening to Americans, one of my cousins posted a snarky remark with a link to an article from the Heritage Foundation. Needless to say I let him have it with all the venom I could muster. I did have a link to a great article from an unbiased source which refudiated everything in his Heritage Foundation meme.
SSDI's recipients have at least some of what they paid in still over in the retiree funds and historically Congress routinely moved it. This move says they are refusing to do so this year.
If you remember the data, the recession Obama inherited disproportionately cost persons with disabilities their jobs (ADA permits too costly as a reason not to accommodate people). Locally the US Post Office got rid of all their persons being accommodated, most of whom had been injured on the job with USPO, due to the manufactured financial problems from the extraordinary new requirement of prepayment of pensions the GOP pushed. Note: these people are targeted twice to be hurt by privatization efforts.
In CA, SSDI contracts with the State for the initial processing of applications and arrangement of needed medical evaluations. Things got pretty bad when Arnie was Governor because he imposed cuts on that group of employees not warranted pretending it helped the State budget (it was 100% federally funded) and federal auditors with support from our US Senators got it fixed so processing time got restored to months instead of years. Other things that slowed things pre-Obama included a computer system that didn't work right and a flood of work related to trying to re-review more frequently drug addiction-related disabilities with insufficient notification of recipient processes (court actions made things more equitable again).
CA also has blended the SSSI and SSDI application processes, reducing delays (may be true elsewhere, but I'm not sure) and, for the former group, blended with SNAP and MediCal (CA's Medicaid) applications.
The current process has a whole lot of the application process doable on-line and/or by phone and/or FAX, which also speeds it up. I understand there is a lot of variability in wait times for in-person from office to office and I have signed several petitions in recent months related to stopping closure of SSA offices in CA.
As Jerry Stidman is single-handedly trying to save the USPS from privatization and other gutting http://saveourpostoffice.us/wp/, and Michael Sherrard is taking on the pre-emption of the name "Christian" by Republican Scrooges http://faithfulamerica.org/, so has Michael Phelan gone on the attack with Social Security, not just to save itm but to strengthen it http://www.socialsecurityworks.org/.
Yes, of course, there are other people and groups working on all of these – Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren for example – and I not too long ago got a Social Security petition from Sherrod Brown – but these are single issue groups, and good clearinghouses on issues on which we all depend, and some of us more than others.
Let me say that this will be disastrous for our family. Not just me and mine, but extended family also.
I hope that the ones that vote republican will wake up and see what they are doing to the 99%!
I would expand on this, but I can’t expose the idiots in my family and start yet another war over politics! Isn’t that just so tragic that politics can split families? That Is what the republicans revel in! Ugh!
Please, believe me, I know how stupid this is! So, be kind.
THIS is why I luvs me some Sen. Elizabeth Warren:
WARREN: Rethuglicans (OK – she didn't call 'em that …) Are INVENTING a Social Security Crisis
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/warren-the-gop-inventing-social-security-crisis
Raise the cap on the Wealthy 1% contributions to Social Security fund and pay back borrowed money from the same via Republicans…
I'll beat TC to it …
AMEN!
That is all they need to do to "fix" the problem, but they will never remove the cap and hurt their contributors.
I agree Richard. Get all the SS money back in its own cookie jar and either substantially increase the cap or remove it entirely. It sure makes sense to me,
What is wrong with them (GOP/TP) Our most vulnerable citizens!! Throwing them under the bus!!
I cannot think nor say anything nice about the GOP/TP I just cannot. Not one good word.
However…
I can think of a great many number of negative words, phrases but am afraid C2 would
censor me for 3 months. lol.
That is all they have accomplished in the last 14 years, 8 under Dubya and six under the Prez. They are not interested in the welfare of anyone who cannot contribute to their Campaign chests.
Sharing this on FAcebook to get my right wing friends all riled up. Of course, this is one more block to chip away in the interests of privatizing Social Security. The Koch Bros. have probably orchestrated the whole deal. My extended family will be horribly affected by this. My brother in law had a brain aneurysm six years ago, and has no short term memory. He is on SSDI. My sister, who was a teacher, retired to care for him. She is not old enough for regular Social Security, and her teacher's pension is not enough for them to live on. They will really be hurt by this. Plus, even if she were old enough for SS, under Ky statutes, she cannot receive SS benefits because she was a teacher, not even from her husband's account.
As alluded to in the article, there will be war if the Republicanus/Teabaggers mess with SS.
To me, with the Republicanus/Teabaggers in control of the House and Senate (fortunately not the presidency) it is a SNAFU . . . Situation Normal All F'd Up!
This is not going to be an easy 2 years, but people really need to open their eyes and heed the cries in the wilderness.
Pooped pit stop mode. Hugs.
who elects these morons?
Welcome Sharon. 🙂
Republican extremists do, but they could not5 get away with it, if so many Americans did not sit on their butts instead ov voting.
What has come of this is the fact that the Republicans have made this situation "A RULE" that cannot be changed! Let me say that again! "A RULE..!!"
What this means is that our congressmen and senators WILL NOT BE ABLE To vote on this as a PASSABLE BILL! It's a DONE DEAL!
Our government is going to leave those who are disabled as well as veterans homeless! The government is going to take away our medical benefits if we have Medicare!
The GOP's next hit is going to be on retiree's!
Supposedly, by November 2016, the based on the new electorial candidates and their campaign agendas, they will will be given the opportunity to either continue the path of eliminating Social Security, or they will have the right to demand and create reform!
Really, it doesn't matter! The GOP will have already dismantled and destroyed our country leaving it for the wealthiest 1%!
Thousands will perish upon being homeless if HUD does not step in and make an affordable plan for all of us to live like human beings that the GOP wants to get rid of!
If something is not done to stop the GOP there will be chaos and riots! I don't think the GOP realizes how detrimental their plan of attack will leave this country! They will leave it in an economic state of destitution no matter if the 1% wealthies can keep the country afloat or not!
The GOP is causing a Holocaust!
Welcome Jenevieve. 🙂