Disability benefits tangle Social Security debate

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05066/467513.stm

<snip>

There are some 6.2 million workers on disability, who, along with their dependents, receive $76.2 billion, or 15.6 percent, of the annual benefits Social Security provides.

Before President Bush formalized his call for partial privatization of Social Security in his State of the Union address in January, most proponents of the plan said that the disability insurance program should be left off the table when Congress deliberates any changes.

<snip>

Under the current system, disabled workers do not lose any benefits.

But, under the proposal that many believe President Bush favors, the White House commission that recommended options for overhauling Social Security applied the same cuts to benefits for future retirees who are disabled as it did for those who are not.

[Coastie for Truth]

1. Doesn't tangle the debate. It trumps the debate

and shows how deep and devastating Bush's cuts are to the bottom 98% of Americans.

[lazarus]

2. I'm disabled

and drawing SS Disability.

I just sent this article to all my Republican relatives. They also happen to be strong Christians.

I asked if Jesus would have cut benefits for the poor and disabled so he could give more money to the rich. Can't wait to hear back from them...

[TomClash]

3. We need to find a way to "disable" Bush and his crowd

[KayLaw]

4. My son is disabled

He's 13 and can't tie his shoes, so there's a strong possibility he'll need SS. This frustrates me so, because my husband and I paid so much in SS and my husband still does. If Bush won't change anything for the people who are collecting already, that means we'll have to keep paying a big chunk of his income to pay the current retirees, some of whom are extremely wealthy--Alan Greenspan for one.

I know my husband and I will be ripped off by Bush's plan, but my child will be destroyed.

[PA Democrat]

5. Combined with what is happening with Medicaid

the disabled will be devastated by the Bush administration. I have a 13 year-old with autism, KayLaw, and I fear that the safety net for her generation of disabled adults is being completely destroyed.

[KayLaw]

7. Same here

Autism is my son's disability. My husband and I have played by the rules, educating ourselves, working, paying taxes, doing our best to live within our means, planning for our retirement and Scott's care. . . now this. My husband is in 46 and I'm 51 and we were both working when Greenspan and Reagan raised the FICA so we'd have plenty of money when it was our turn to retire.

I don't know what we did wrong except to be born on thw wrong dates. I wish we were 10 years older.

:shrug:

[LizW]

6. "under the proposal that many believe President Bush favors"

This is scary. He's doing a 60 city propaganda and fear tour, but we have to guess what the plan actually is?

What he's really saying is, "Trust me. Give me all the power over your lives, and I'll do what I want with them."