Former Obama advisor thinks disabled Americans should work more

[Bluebear]

via Americablog: Is there really any surprise that this was one of Obama's leading economic advisers? While it's certainly fashionable in right wing circles to kick those in the weakest situation, most Americans care a lot more about the spoiled Wall Street types getting away with crashing a global economy without punishment. Unfortunately Orszag and fellow conservative economists never add up those numbers and talk about those costs. How about we stop beating the most vulnerable in society and start getting back to the system that used to produce a growing middle class?

Maybe the pampered class like Orszag could tally up the costs of the poor and disabled and compare it to what Wall Street receives every year. Let's include tax breaks, sub-inflation government lending, lost pension fund and 401K income from the crisis, increased unemployment costs because of Wall Street, lost tax dollars since there are fewer Americans working, as well as lost jobs because of Wall Street's actions. If the number doesn't equal the $9 trillion lent to the industry during the crisis, plus the hundreds of billions from TARP then Wall Street types should quit this constant bashing of the poor. Nobody likes bullies that pick on the weak. Bullshit from people like this is getting old:

The spike in disability insurance applications (and awards) does not reflect a less healthy population. The fraction of working-age adults who report a disability, about one in 10, has remained roughly constant for the past 20 years. (Indeed, it would be surprising if the number of workers with disabilities had risen by 50 percent over the past four years.) Rather, the weak labor market has driven more people to apply for disability benefits that they qualify for but wouldn’t need if they could find work.

When Congress created the disability insurance program in 1956, it required that recipients be unable to “engage in substantial gainful activity in the U.S. economy.” In other words, they had to be unable to work. That was sensible at the time, when more jobs involved physical labor and technologies to assist people with disabilities were not widely available.

Today, however, many people with disabilities are able to engage in some form of work — even if they can’t admit that and still keep their insurance benefits. Cutting off access to the workplace in this way is both unfortunate and unnecessary — and reinforces the threat that the current downturn could cause a long-term reduction in the share of people who work.

http://www.americablog.com/2010/12/citibanks-peter-orszag-thinks-disabled.html