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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFuck Rand Paul!
I'm not sure if there's a thread on this article already so I apologize in advance if this is a repost.
Democrats hit Rand Paul for disability comments
Washington (CNN)Democrats blasted Sen. Rand Paul on Wednesday for arguing that a majority of people collecting Social Security disability benefits are taking advantage of the system.
Speaking at a New Hampshire diner about government waste, the Kentucky Republican said "there's always somebody who's deserving" of entitlement programs, "But everybody in this room knows somebody who's gaming the system."
"What I tell people is, if you look like me and you hop out of your truck, you shouldn't be getting a disability check. Over half of the people on disability are either anxious or their back hurts -- join the club," he said, drawing a few laughs from the audience. "Who doesn't get a little anxious for work everyday and their back hurts? Everybody over 40 has back pain."
More at link
http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/14/politics/rand-paul-disability/index.html
So in one sentence, this asshole declares that anyone who "looks normal" is not disabled.
You want to talk about real anxiety Mr. Paul? How about how I wake at night and shake my child awake because I think she has died! Or how about holding my son in my arms as he stairs at me and takes his final breaths! Shall we even talk about the seven different meds I take for anxiety, depression, and PTSD?
Fuck you, you generalizing ignorant son of a bitch!
chillfactor
(7,575 posts)but as a senior I do have a handicap permit...I may look "normal" but any time time Paul wants to exchange bodies, I would welcome the exchange..what an asshole this idiot is!
olddots
(10,237 posts)He is insanely evil as in shutdown ignorant and pathalogically fucked up .
Behind the Aegis
(53,955 posts)It amazes me how many so-called progressives tout his BS!
I am very sorry for how personal this is to you. I wish you well, and wish it could be more.
whatchamacallit
(15,558 posts)I'm seriously curious.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Of course you do. You're all Republicans.
gelsdorf
(240 posts)make up your own ophthalmologist association, get help from daddy, friends w/ Jamie, yep no gaming on his end at all.
Evil bastard
BumRushDaShow
(128,905 posts)his rampant plagiarizing to "game" the RW media system.
Many DUers have seen posts from fellow DUers who have become severely disabled due to any myriad of health issues and who are still waiting for a hearing date to plead their cases. To even get a shot at it, you basically need to spend money to retain a lawyer to help navigate the system. I remember Raygun essentially suggesting that the only ones who should even be eligible to get assistance, should basically be paraplegic. It's just sad.
gelsdorf
(240 posts)and was approved in 4 months WITHOUT an attorney. My medical records must be chock full of bad news. At the same time, I must now get representation to go after my insurance company. They get you coming or going
BumRushDaShow
(128,905 posts)I expect that it may be a regional problem, where in most cities, it can be well over a year just to get a hearing date. SSA has posted their average hearing wait times and you can see the problem (although I expect under the current administration, the times may have been reduced from previous admins) -
http://www.ssa.gov/appeals/DataSets/01_NetStat_Report.html
And yup - "they" will get you somewhere.
ninjanurse
(93 posts)Right! He's trading on the credibility we generally give doctors- because they have to deal with facts. But Rand Paul is making up statistics with no basis. That's called 'lying'.
yeoman6987
(14,449 posts)What is the plan to have these beneficiaries to survive?
Where are the jobs?
I think anybody on SSDI should be extremely worried. The checks may end by January 2016 or a 20 percent deduction.
It is awful how they are treated.
Johonny
(20,841 posts)my thoughts to a T
hedgehog
(36,286 posts)People on disability aren't quite the Lucky Duckies he pictures.
Roland99
(53,342 posts)Iris
(15,653 posts)I am more and more dismayed by the relative ignorance of so many elected officials.
pampango
(24,692 posts)to actually run a competitive campaign against a Democratic nominee. Keep living that dream, guys! I am glad that he seems to have every intention of running for the republican nomination. Keep dragging your party to the right, Rand.
turbinetree
(24,695 posts)His party is a POST TRAMATIC SIN DUMB HYPOCRITES of GREED and no COMMON SENSE of want just to have a need for EGO, GREED its that simple.
This right wing republican libertarian hypocrite jerk's concept and talking out of both sides of this hypocrites mouth and then having the audacity to play doctor without knowing what, who, where about the individual needs for help in the SS and SSDI system is outrageous, without the patient coming into his office to ask for help.
He does it at a fund raiser and gets laughs from the same hypocrites who judge from afar.
He needs to be called out by a real reporter and ask him how he does that one trick pony show of doctor patient interview and judgment, on how his ego of deceit must and just categorizes everyone and place them /us all in the same boat, that we the disabled are gaming the system, has he ever been BLIND (note he's an EYE Doctor), how about BLACK LUNG DISEASE that maybe someone received from one oligarchy donor such as debunked Massy Energy. Or better yet how about some soldier from the Korean War/ Vietnam/ WWII that was injured in battle from days gone, and by how they feel about them being judged from afar as gaming of the SSDI and SS system, with a bullet in there spinal cord and cripple, go live at some friends house, let them take on the responsibility, after the government of WE the people to put and ask them to serve, so that he can get on a stage and make comments that the disabled are gaming the system.
This concept of doctoring from a far is just like the tin foil hat he puts on every morning to play the blame game of more right wing libertarian republican BULLSH*T of knowing what is best for the patient, he's another (Tom Coleman and all the rest in his republican party of hypocrites who was just as incapable and incompatible to show any form of basic reasoning when he placed a hold on Veterans disabilities because it cost 23 million dollars) just as Paul has done.
This another doctor (Coleman) was also diagnosing the patient from afar, because it cost to much in the last session but he is now going to get all of the taxpayers benefits and tenure for those benefits and others like him and others are getting a free ride of having this jerk and others getting elected ($174,000 a year and he is now running for president for 2016 in 2015, its two years away bucko---why aren't you in Washington doing your goddamn job) HE HAS NOT INTRODUCED ONE JOBS BILL, VOTING RIGHTS LEGISLATION that he goes around and talks about from the other side of the mouth, REMOVAL OF THE TPP TRADE BILL------NOTHING, except blame the disabled for gaming the system, really
He his not stupid he is just deceitful and disingenuous and an jerk to morality, common decency and his oath to help the patient in need.
Because in all appearances it is a joke and game, to blame those 11 million indivuals and then to have and create a means test to tell everyone that the system is broke and that private Wall Street greed and Hedge Funds can save the system-------------NOT ON THIS WATCH, people are going to be reminded of his hypocrisy everyday until 2016, because he should be in Washington funding the SSDI and the SS program , that's what is called a real doctors job
florida08
(4,106 posts)with Ayn Randians. After all she was one. There are many vets who can "hop out of a truck" because they now have a prosthetic limb where a leg use to be. Hell some can run you moron. Honestly these people get more sociopathic each day. Why the hell are they so obsessed with something we pay into? Keep you gd hands off it and your mouth shut. You know nothing of suffering.
Damn these ignorant sanctimonious cold hearted self serving prigs need to be taken down a peg or two. Their pride and arrogance are so big they can't see their own phallus anymore
Blanks
(4,835 posts)You ask:
Why the hell are they so obsessed with something we pay into?
I want to know why they're so obsessed with what other people are getting.
There is a right wing obsession over where the money goes unless it is to the DOD. Which is odd because that's where over half the money goes.
If they spent the effort scrutinizing the defense budget that they put into trying to starve seniors and the disabled, we'd have no problem eliminating the debt.
florida08
(4,106 posts)Absolutely. They borrow from SS then want to scam us on the benefits. They have for years. When there are overpayments it goes into the general fund instead of SS. They feign responsibility while calling us takers yet we know what their doing. It's happening with pensions too
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Well said.
rjsquirrel
(4,762 posts)OK I'm ready to go all PC on Rand Paul about the visibility of disabilities, but he's right on one score. Who among us does NOT know someone gaming the SSI/SSDI system who is actually perfectly capable of working a decent job?
I know several such people, and they are as healthy as I am but they have psychiatrists willing to write letters for them saying they are too depressed or anxious to work. As someone who struggles with major depression but gets up every day and goes to work, I do in fact have a problem with seeing people who are not really struggling that much take the free ride. And they exist. Not in numbers to bankrupt the system, and I am far more concerned about dishonest defense contractors, but come on, the "disabled" are not pure and saintly people, and it is a fact that a lot of people are faking it. I know some.
Blanks
(4,835 posts)Even if people can work despite their disability, are there jobs for them to work at in their community?
If the goal is to help people lead productive lives (and working is one component of a productive life) then we should have job training programs and opportunities for people to work at the kind of job that they've been trained to do.
We pay people disability because it's cheaper to do that than it is to actually take steps to improve their lives.
He's just trying to rally the most selfish among us to join together and oppress the most vulnerable among us.
Pacifist Patriot
(24,653 posts)And I just retired from the ministry. I worked with a lot of people, and I mean A LOT, who are on some sort of assistance program, especially SSI/SSDI. Haven't met one yet gaming the system. I've met plenty who were treated as if they were, which further stigmatized...and traumatized them.
Additionally, both of my parents worked for SSA in the 80s, 90s, and early 00s. They would always roll their eyes when "sympathetic" people would say things like what a pity it was they had to deal with frauds and system gamers all the time.
Psychiatrists put their licensing on the line to engage in fraud. It's not really that common.
People you think are "gaming the system" may be putting on a brave face to you instead. Who knows?
pampango
(24,692 posts)from the really catastrophic 'gaming of the system' done by 'defense contractors' (as you say) and corporations and the rich.
The right would rather have our attention focused on "welfare queens" and the "'disabled' who are gaming the system" rather than on much bigger and more important problems.
SamKnause
(13,101 posts)cyberswede
(26,117 posts)gwheezie
(3,580 posts)People are not suicidal everyday. Or psychotic or not sleeping everyday. The nature of brain diseases such as bipolar schizophrenia ocd ptsd is that you can have long periods of stability and then suddenly crash. It is so difficult to get disability that frequently even when people would love to try easing back into the work force they are afraid if they come off disability they won't get it back. Some people may have a year or 2 of rapid cycling and then be fine for years. It's a tough life chronic mental illness is not for the weak some of the toughest people I know are mentally ill.
I wish we could allow people to try out working for a year maybe before taking their safety net away. My brother is bipolar he's lucky that the times he's been sick and had to take up to a year off he was supported by my parents. He's smart funny charming and when well very high functioning. When sick he is psychotic and homicidal.
And it should be Democrats screaming the loudest about those who are abusing the system. It's a small percentage but it gives the whole system a bad name and gives opponents a talking point.
If Democrats want to protect it from Republicans they should at least pretend to want to protect it from abuse. Even if the abuse is small and there's not a lot of practical ways to reduce it without hurting others.
csziggy
(34,136 posts)I only know one couple that is on SSDI and they desperately need it. The husband has been disabled since birth - he was born with a heart defect and had to have multiple operations as he grew up, He could not do any work that involved physical activity or stress. Starting in his late 40s he has had to get stents, bypass and other treatments to keep that defective heart working. Throughout his life he has worked as much as possible but even with a college degree he couldn't get better than a minimum wage job because every few years he would have a health event that caused him to take time off from work. But he worked up until last fall when he went on SSDI.
His wife also worked regularly but she also was not able to get better jobs because of the time she'd have to take care of her husband after his various operations. Three years ago she had a stroke but after treatment and therapy went back to work - until she had several more strokes.
After the wife's first stroke, they applied for SSDI but it took until last fall before they were approved. There is a good chance that the wife would not have been as prone to her further strokes if she had not been trying to work while they were going through the appeal process.
Why should they have been tortured by the denial of SSDI after paying into the system for 40 years each? They were not gaming the system. They needed the assistance and were denied because some random other person might be gaming the system.
This is disgusting and trying to justify a system that almost automatically denies applications for disability because a few people are dishonest is disgusting.
AndreaCG
(2,331 posts)I am bipolar and went to work too. Until my meds stopped working and I got about four anxiety attacks a week. Once twice in a day. The doc changed my meds and the anxiety stopped but the mood swings haven't. The other day I was up about 36 hours with a two hour nap. This isn't uncommon. Plus after 30 years of government employment I am totally burned out. Fortunately I can retire sometime around October. If I stayed another two years my pension would be bigger but I can barely cope now. And NO I AM NOT ON DISABILITY. I considered applying this spring but went back to work. For a while. Now it's been almost two months. I hope to go in next Tuesday but who knows what my mood will be like.
You should be DAMN GLAD you're not so depressed you can't cope, and have a little empathy for those of us in worse shape. If you can't I suggest you check out free republic where empathy is also in short supply.
Oh yes, the anxiety attacks have started again.
liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)what disability is?
Pacifist Patriot
(24,653 posts)His comments simply provide further evidence of what a cruel, sadistic, fuckhead he is and those who think like him are.
I really do struggle with trying to figure out where this contempt for humanity came from and why it is such a strong current these days.
MoonRiver
(36,926 posts)Guess that will protect me from being stoned by Mr. Paul, after I park in my designated handicapped space.
ladjf
(17,320 posts)for you politicians.
loyalsister
(13,390 posts)Whatever that means. But, I can't drive one - or at all- because of my disability. Rand Paul is an ass!!
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)mstinamotorcity2
(1,451 posts)To take people less fortunate than themselves and make them the Takers!!
dilby
(2,273 posts)That still means the other 75% truly need it and so fucking deal with it. Hell if 75% of the people were gaming the system I would not care because I still care about the 25% who need it. But at the end of the day I am sure it's an insignificant number of people who are not disabled that claim they are and no Rand I don't know anyone who is gaming the system.
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)as everyone in the room made furtive glances at everyone else.
father founding
(619 posts)The majority of people collecting Social Security disability benefit were forced to aplly for it by private companies such as UNUM, Prudential and others of that ilk. They tell their clients either You apply for SSDB or they will stop benefits. They even pay special companies to help receive SSD. So if you have insurance with these companies cancel immediately, because You are already paying for SSDB.