A guy comes to you and says all ya gotta do is take monthly checks from him, and you never have to scratch for a living for the rest of your life. He tells you that it's all 'free money' as far as you're concerned.
Do you take it?
Well, if you're like most of the human race who's ever in search of that great Something for Nothing in the Sky, of COURSE you do. Ethics are for people who enjoy working their ass off until they die.
See the rub?
More Americans went on disability than found jobs in last 3 months
marcuss LIBERALS ARE IDIOTS
2012/07/18 22:02:47
More Americans went on disability than found jobs over the last
three months, according to fresh figures crunched by the Senate Budget
Committee.
Underscoring the extent of the recent slowdown in the economy, the
startling numbers show that between April and June, a total of 246,000
people enrolled in the Social Security Disability Insurance program. In
the same period, just 225,000 found jobs.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., ranking Republican on the budget panel,
said the figures raise concern about the health of the economy as well
as the disability insurance program itself. He said that since 2008, a
total of 3.6 million Americans have gone on disability -- while 1.3
million lost jobs.
"The growing number of people on disability and other federal
benefits, combined with weak economic growth, raises serious concerns
about the sustainability of the American economy," he said in a
statement.
The stat speaks more to the weakening economy -- a reality Federal
Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke confirmed in testimony to Congress Tuesday
-- than any sudden growth in disability enrollment, which has remained
fairly steady.
A total of 247,000 people went on disability in the first three
months of President Obama's term -- at a time when millions were losing
jobs at the height of the recession. Fast forward to the first three
months of 2012, and 249,000 people went on disability.
While that number was roughly the same in the second quarter, the
number of new jobs plummeted -- from nearly 680,000 in the first quarter
to 225,000 in the second quarter.
Still, the disability rolls have continued to swell and threaten the program's fiscal future.
A new Congressional Budget Office underscored the troubled finances
of the growing Social Security Disability Insurance program. The report
showed $119 billion in benefits were paid last year to 8.3 million
disabled workers. That represents almost 18 percent of all Social
Security spending.
According to Sessions' office, the program has been running a deficit since 2009.
"Consequently, the trust fund is shrinking and will be depleted by 2016 -- just four years from now," his office said.
According to CBO, it will take some serious budget balancing to right
the program's finances - the report floated options ranging from
raising taxes to reducing disability benefits to changing eligibility
standards to reducing the cost-of-living adjustment tied to benefits.
Sessions said administrators also need to do a better job of distinguishing between "proper and improper disability claims."
"The administration of this program must be improved to avoid sinking
our country deeper into debt, to ensure the program remains viable for
those with disabilities, and to protect Social Security itself," he
said.
The disability program provides benefits to adults who've worked in
the past but are unable to work now because of a medical condition. The
fund is financed mostly by a 1.8 percent payroll tax.
Read More: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/07/17/more-am...
Top Opinion
-
Nimitz 2012/07/18 22:06:15
DISABILITY is NOT just handed out nor is it like applying for food stamps...... Anyone that has ever tried or knows anyone that has got on Disability knows the real pain , effort and TIME it takes to get it accomplished. Most of the time it takes up to TWO YEARS and more in some cases. Its very hard to prove disability now and it be accepted. Especially the last four years........ Just because you have a fantastic surgeon or family doctor doesn't mean anything.The Social Security Disability has its own set of rules , criteria , and firey hoops that have to successfully jumped through and then most often you have to go thorough a Federal disability hearing before an actual Disability Judge. In that hearing there is often Medical experts, Rehabilitation specialists, Attorneys for the government, sometimes private investigators that have videoed you and watched you for months and sometime years, YOURSELF and your attorney..... Its not EASY anymore. They just DON'T HAND OUT DISABILITY CHECKS LIKE THEY DO WELFARE , FOOD-STAMPS AND UNEMPLOYMENT...... The PEOPLE that got on DISABILITY IN THOSE 3 MONTHS WERE ALL CASES THAT HAD BEEN PENDING FOR OVER A YEAR TO TWO YEARS.... IT was that far backlogged.... WAKE UP and smell the ...
DISABILITY is NOT just handed out nor is it like applying for food stamps...... Anyone that has ever tried or knows anyone that has got on Disability knows the real pain , effort and TIME it takes to get it accomplished. Most of the time it takes up to TWO YEARS and more in some cases. Its very hard to prove disability now and it be accepted. Especially the last four years........ Just because you have a fantastic surgeon or family doctor doesn't mean anything.The Social Security Disability has its own set of rules , criteria , and firey hoops that have to successfully jumped through and then most often you have to go thorough a Federal disability hearing before an actual Disability Judge. In that hearing there is often Medical experts, Rehabilitation specialists, Attorneys for the government, sometimes private investigators that have videoed you and watched you for months and sometime years, YOURSELF and your attorney..... Its not EASY anymore. They just DON'T HAND OUT DISABILITY CHECKS LIKE THEY DO WELFARE , FOOD-STAMPS AND UNEMPLOYMENT...... The PEOPLE that got on DISABILITY IN THOSE 3 MONTHS WERE ALL CASES THAT HAD BEEN PENDING FOR OVER A YEAR TO TWO YEARS.... IT was that far backlogged.... WAKE UP and smell the real world of biased NEWS MEDIA !!!!!! There are MORE TURNED DOWN ON A DAILY BASIS THEN EVER BEFORE..... very few get on disability without being turned down at least once to three times without a long extended COSTLY battle.....
worse than that are the people that have used all 99 weeks of unemployment coverage. they fall off the unemployment rolls because they are no longer covered.
its a nightmare that we can start to break out of on 11/6/12....
Do you take it?
Well, if you're like most of the human race who's ever in search of that great Something for Nothing in the Sky, of COURSE you do. Ethics are for people who enjoy working their ass off until they die.
See the rub?
Eventually socialism will eat itself. According to any rational analysis of systems theory it MUST eat itself. Socialism relies on leeching off the producers of society--by making them the slaves of the body politic--and the producers of society will not produce if there's no incentive to do so. That's the good news. The bad news is that, left unchecked, it'll take ninety percent of the population with it when it finally eats itself. People have short memories. They don't remember how the old USSR collapsed into damn near cannibalistic anarchy--and would have done so had it not been for a torrent of foreign assistance. Socialism is to social/economic systems as cancer is to human beings.