Why are republicans targeting SSDI benefits and not SS benefits too?

[thucythucy]

44. Cool story, bro.

I doubt drug abuse is the sole reason why anyone is getting SSI or SSDI. Maybe they're on drugs or alcohol dependent now, but there has to be some other underlying problem for them to get benefits. Generally speaking disability legislation is written specifically to exclude folks who are drug or alcohol dependent. The Americans with Disabilities Act, for instance, has a whole section of who is NOT covered by the Act, which includes those with active drug dependency, even though right wing BS artists sling that shit about the ADA "protecting drunks and drug addicts" all the time.

No one gets SSI or SSDI because "they say they have bad nerves." You need a doctor to certify you're eligible, and doctors who try to scam the system can end up losing their licenses or going to jail. If you're schizophrenic, or otherwise psychotic, or have an intense anxiety disorder, maybe you can get on. But you need at least one shrink to say it's so. And the process can often take years.

Children of adults who get SSDI (for which you have to have worked a minimum number of years, and paid into the system for a minimum amount of quarters) get kicked off the system as soon as they become adults, unless they're disabled as well (in which case they'd be getting SSI to begin with).

Your story reeks of right wing BS--the same anti-disability stories I get from libertarians and Rushbots.

If you know someone defrauding the system--turn them in. Otherwise stop playing into right wing memes.