Disabled people like me are being told we shouldn’t worry. Only those who are cheating the system will end up being hurt.
That Squatter in the White House has put forth a budget proposal to cut $72 billion in funding for federal disability programs over the next ten years. The cuts would come to Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income, which millions of disabled Americans rely on.
Some disability activists are screaming bloody murder about it. They say it’s yet another example of the mean-spiritedness of the Squatter’s agenda. But his budget director, Mick Mulvaney, has said the only disabled people who will be hurt by this are the ones “getting SSDI who should not be getting it.”
In other words, the millions who are faking disabilities so they can cash in on Social Security. As Mulvaney put it, “Shouldn’t it be up to the government to make sure we can look folks who are paying the taxes in the eye and say, ‘You know what, we did everything we could to make sure that everybody on SSDI is really disabled?’”
The Squatter, in his budget message, says, “We must reform our welfare system so that it does not discourage able-bodied adults from working, which takes away scarce resources from those in real need. Work must be the center of our social policy.”
Yikes! That $72 billion is a helluva lot of fraud! There must be a disability fakers under every rock.
Now I’m starting to wonder if many of the disabled folks I know are truly legit. (Does that deaf guy really just have cotton stuffed in his ears?) And I’m sure they’re all starting to wonder the same about me.
Apparently, this scamming goes far beyond Social Security. The Squatter’s budget also cuts funding from the Older Americans Act Nutrition Program, which in turn funds the Meals on Wheels program. Meals on Wheels America issued a statement asserting that nutrition programs are already serving 23 million fewer meals than in 2005 and waiting lists are growing in every state.
The statement said the proposed cuts “would exacerbate the widespread suffering already felt by millions of vulnerable seniors and put greater pressure on an already strained senior support infrastructure.”
But the Squatter would never take a single breadcrumb away from anyone who really needs it. So there must be a deep and insidious network of scoundrels pretending to be old and/or disabled and hungry just so they can score a free bologna sandwich.
The cancer of fraud seems to have even spread to the once-pristine Special Olympics. The Squatter’s budget would cut $10 million from Special Olympics education programs. Who knew that so many of those proud Olympians accepting their medals were just pretending to have Down Syndrome?
But, thank goodness, the Squatter will put an end to that.