Trump is about to declare war on the poor, SSDI and welfare recipients

[gratuitous]

16. I worked for an attorney who did administrative law

It was more than 10 years ago now, so I don't know what the current state of granting benefits is. But I know that from 1993 to 2005, it was very difficult to get certified for SSDI or SSI. We had clients who could barely attend a one hour hearing - and who spent the next three days bed-ridden - only to be told by a review panel or an ALJ that they really could work at some job or another. For many of these people, it was tough enough applying for a "handout" so they could keep body and soul together. To be told that they were malingering was just too much for some of them.

One client I particularly remember had to go all the way to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to win benefits. The opinion started off with a sentence about this case being typical of why people hate government and the law.

I hope the state of the law is better nowadays, but we had a standard passage to insert in many of our briefs that the ALJ wasn't supposed to substitute his own judgment for that of a medical professional. So many times, a denial of benefits would acknowledge that the claimant's treating doctor said the claimant was disabled, but the ALJ would say that during the course of the claimant's hearing, "the claimant didn't seem to be doing too badly," at least to the ALJ's eyes.