The repugicans have shifted their focus slightly away from just killing
Americans' jobs to killing disabled Americans; nearly nine million
disabled Americans.
…
Over
the past four years that repugicans have controlled one-half of
Congress, most of their energy was focused on killing Americans’ jobs.
Now that they control the entire Congress thanks to the billionaire Koch
brothers, repugicans have shifted their focus slightly away from just
killing Americans’ jobs to killing disabled Americans; nearly nine
million disabled Americans.
That was the conclusion of the acting Social
Security Commissioner Carolyn Colvin during a Senate Budget Committee
hearing focused on addressing the recent
rule change
by house repugicans forbidding the Trust from shifting funds within
the program for disabled Americans. In answer to a query from Senator
Jeff Merkley (D-OR) about what the consequences are for disabled
Americans if the rule change stays in effect, she said a failure by
Congress to shore up the Disability Insurance Trust Fund would be deadly
for its beneficiaries. Colvin
said, “
I don’t want to be dramatic, but I’ve worked with this population my whole career. We [would] give them a death sentence.”
Due to the house repugicans’ unilateral “rule
change,” the disability fund is projected to be exhausted by the end of
2016, and if Congress fails to correct the repugican rule change
beneficiaries will receive a 20 percent cut in benefits. Apparently, the
Senate is taking up the issue because lawmakers are divided over how to
deal with the shortfall instead of doing what they have done 11 times
in the past; reallocate funds from within the Trust.
The acting Commissioner Calvin said that on average,
recipients get about $1,200 a month and depend on it for paying rent,
buying food and other necessities. $1,200 per month is below the federal
poverty line and she noted that at that level people “are barely
surviving as it is. If you get a cut there, you’re not going to be able
to survive.” Colvin likely fails to realize that warning repugicans
that their cuts are a death sentence for disabled Americans will only
fuel their lust to kill a small percentage of the 47 percent of the
population they regard as moochers and takers; disabled people.
One of the repugicans opposed to Social Security in
general, and who instigated the House rule change, Tom Price, said the
program needs to be cut due to rampant abuse and fraud; a lie repugicans claim about every social program. However, according to a
senior fellow of federal fiscal policy at the Center on Budget and
Policy Priorities (CBPP), Kathy Ruffing, repugicans like Price who
claim Social Security is welfare for cheaters are doing what the repugican cabal
does as a matter of course; lying.
Ruffing said, “repugicans in Congress have
systematically underfunded those efforts by the Social Security
Administration and I think that the critics of the program who like to
claim that it is somehow rife with fraud and abuse have a responsibility
to document those claims. They are frankly wrong.” Of course they
are wrong, and lying, but that is what they do naturally. Expecting them
to document a lie is childish. The repugicans do not document anything.
These are the same repugicans who are wont to claim
Social Security is welfare in their drive to eliminate the program for
their benefactors the Koch brothers. It is worth reiterating that the
nation’s most popular New Deal program is a primary target of the Kochs
who claim Social Security is “fraudulent and increasingly oppressive.” They have been calling for its summary repeal for thirty-five years; repugicans have hated it since its inception.
About 8.9 million people receive disability benefits
from the fund and its eligibility guidelines are extremely stringent.
First, it is not welfare because beneficiaries must have paid into the
program while they worked at least one-quarter of their adult life, and
five of the last 10 years. The overwhelming majority of beneficiaries
are 55 or older, and many of them die within a few years of first
receiving the insurance according to CBPP; many die while they are
waiting for a determination that they qualify as disabled that may take
2-3 years and several appeals. About a quarter of recipients are
mentally impaired, have muscular or skeletal problems, or suffer from
diseases such as diabetes, Lou Gehrig’s disease, congestive heart
failure, and cancer; the kind of debilitating infirmities that repugicans claim make recipients frauds, abusers, and takers.
While Democrats are looking for a solution to keep
the disability fund solvent now that repugicans eliminated reallocating
funds within the Trust, repugicans will oppose keeping the fund
solvent using any measure; especially since the Koch brothers bought
control of Congress. Ms. Colvin, Democrats, and many pundits have noted
and reminded repugicans that Congress previously approved 11
reallocations between the two funds on a regularly bipartisan basis.
However, now that the Kochs own both houses of Congress, they intend on
imposing their agenda on the nation and any sense of bipartisanship is
over because they do not own Democrats…yet.
Now that Senate Democrats are addressing the House repugican cabal action, repugican Kelly Ayotte (NH) spoke for the Koch brothers and
said it would be a dire mistake to do what Congress has done on a
bipartisan basis 11 times before to preserve the solvency of the fund;
and she repeated a favorite repugican phrase to justify the repugican
action. She said “Congress would be kicking the can down the road” by trying to find a reasonable solution to what commissioner Colvin said was a ‘death sentence for the disabled.” The repugicans want drastic cuts, privatization, raising the retirement
age to 75, or following the Koch demand and just repeal what they claim
is the “fraudulent and increasingly oppressive” program altogether.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected that
allowing the trust funds to borrow from each other will not affect
either division’s solvency, but that was before Paul Ryan changed the CBO into a “trickle down rubber stamp”
for the Koch brothers. President Obama proposed another reallocation in
his fiscal 2016 budget last week, but repugicans want “a concrete proposal.”
On Wednesday, the ranking member on the Senate Budget panel, Bernie
Sanders, offered a very concrete proposal that entails raising Social
Security taxes on the wealthy; a proposal repugicans will reject
without blinking.
Actually, Senator Sanders’
plan
is not really a payroll tax hike, but an equitable solution repugicans
typically reject out of hand because it is fair for all Americans.
Sanders said, “
If repugicans are serious about extending the
solvency of Social Security, they will join me in scrapping the cap that
allows multi-millionaires to pay a much smaller percentage of their
income into Social Security than the middle class.” Any individual
earning over $118,500 annually exceeds the cap on Social Security
withholding; millionaires pay next to nothing on their incomes. Senator
Sanders saying the rich pay a “
much smaller percentage” is a
gross understatement, but his point is that if every American paid the
same percentage, it would extend the solvency of the program into
perpetuity including affording the Trust to raise benefits
substantially.
However, because the Koch brothers want Social
Security abolished, and the repugican cabal rule change forbidding reallocation is
just their first step in the hastening program’s demise, there will be
no tax hike on the rich. Keeping the Trust solvent is of no interest to repugicans’ and the news that their “new rule” is a death sentence for
nine million disabled Americans only adds to their joy at eventually
killing the program for the Koch brothers.
Most Americans understand the repugicans’ goal is
to kill Social Security, so it was interesting that Rep. Charlie Rangel
(D-NY) said that while he questions the repugican cabal’s tactics, he still
foolishly holds out hope that the Kochs will allow repugicans to
reallocate money to keep the disability program solvent. Rangel said, “It’s
really a stain on the reputation of this body. Thank dog it doesn’t
involve a crime, but it does involve the most gross misuse of political
power.” Even if it did involve a crime there would be no
consequences for repugicans. If there were consequences for repugican
crimes, or gross misuse of political power, John Boehner would be
indicted for violating the Logan Act and share manipulation in pushing
the KeystoneXL pipeline. The fact that the repugican rule change is a “death sentence” for nine million disabled Americans will likely garner them greater support from their religio-wingnut base.
