Again, I don't think anyone wants to deny a legitimately disabled person some benefits but when the government doesn't saddle up for any of the claims, it looks as though people are taking advantage. Especially in the red states.
My sister went legally blind when her retinas started detaching. It still took years for her get SS disability.
Are there people gaming the system? Maybe. But the real problem is that since the labor market is controlled by employer need and not workers needs, a lot of these people could work somewhere, it's just no one wants to hire them.
Perhaps because your case was real.
Disability, USA
Steve Kroft reports on the alarming state of the federal disability program, which has exploded in size and could run out of money
- 2013 Oct 10
There is a Senate hearing scheduled tomorrow on a subject of some importance to millions of Americans, but with the government shutdown it's not clear that the Senate Committee on Government Affairs will be able to pay for a stenographer to record the event. The hearing involves the Federal Disability Insurance Program, which could become the first government benefits program to run out of money. When it began back in the 1950s it was envisioned as a small program to assist people who were unable to work because of illness or injury.
Today, it serves nearly 12 million people -- up 20 percent in the last six years -- and has a budget of $135 billion. That's more than the government spent last year on the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department, and the Labor Department combined. It's been called a "secret welfare system" with it's own "disability industrial complex," a system ravaged by waste and fraud. A lot of people want to know what's going on. Especially Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.
Disability, USA