Here's the witness list for the 2:00 hearing today before the House Social Security Subcommittee on "the financial status of the Disability Insurance (DI) and Old Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Funds, and the available legislative options to ensure full DI benefits continue to be paid":
- Charles P. Blahous III, Ph.D., Public Trustee, Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees
- Ed Lorenzen, Senior Advisor, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget
- Webster Phillips, Senior Legislative Representative, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare
It's Orwellian for the Republican majority to talk about wanting to assure that "full DI benefits continue to be paid" when it's clear they want dramatic cuts in DI. I suppose this language suggests that Congressional Republicans realize that they don't have public support for significant cuts in DI.
Yes indeed Mr. Hall. If Rep. Johnson was honest he would have admitted in his hearing announcement that he hasn't done squat to address funding for Social Security as Chairman of THE SOCIAL SECURITY SUBCOMMITTEE. He has been getting a free pass on doing nothing because he was shot down and spent time in the Hanoi Hilton. No doubt it was an experience no one would wish on anyone, but sooner or later heroes have to do something heroic. It's time for Sam to step up to the plate and get real.
ReplyDeleteRepublicans like Reps Black and Reed demonstrate their gross ignorance when they express their belief that the solvency issue can addressed through voc rehab efforts. DI beneficiaries have very severe impairments and no matter what you do almost all will never be able to engage in SGA on a sustained basis. The new holy grail is early intervention, i.e., identifying and offering voc rehab to folks before they apply for DI. This pipe dream needs to be tested before buying into it. Past demonstration projects suggest that it will be costly and ineffective. And don't even mention the Ticket, which was once viewed as the cure.
ReplyDeleteI waited three years for a hearing to be cancelled once the ALJ read my file. One hour prior to the hearing he called my lawyer and said I was approved with backpay til December 2010. This way May 2013 and April 2015 I received the long form CDR instead of the short form CDR. I'm forty-six years old and worked 25 years until I was diagnosed with CFS/ME December 2010. I was left an inheritance from my Great Uncle that enabled me to quit working and begin an Ampligen drug trial in Charlotte, N.C. A year of being on Ampligen was very difficult because you get sicker before you get better. It takes about six months before you turn the corner and start feeling better again. Ampligen and medical costs were $25,000 plus moving from Houston to Charlotte was an additional $25,000. We ran out of money and had to stop the trial and I moved back to Houston to rejoin my Wife. I lived alone in Charlotte the year I was there in 2011.
ReplyDeletei felt 70% better but only three weeks off Ampligen I relapsed and lost everything I gained in a year. I was devastated but knew I did all I could to become well. So, I called my lawyer March 2013 because It had been almost three years since I applied for SSDI. The next day my attorney said she called and I magically had a court date in May 2013. I have paid into FICA for 26 years and never took unemployment, welfare or SSI. I'm also a Desert Storm Veteraan with six years served in the USN honorably discharged. Regardless of all these facts social security or should I say the republicans are doing everything to cancel my benefits of $1400 a month $1200 after taxes since combining my whopping $16,000 really $13,600 plus my Wife's income surpasses $32,000 so I'm taxed twice on my FICA payments of 27 years. This is outrageous and goes unchecked because the establishment on the hill doesn't care about people who are truly disabled. This country is pure evil and ran by greedy globalist worlds bankers who punish the disabled because we're just cattle to them. I'm proud to be an American but I am ashamed of our so called representatives that could care less about the truly disabled. Their all filthy rich and the ones we voted in in November were sent to the back of the bus. Boehner is a liar and won't stand up to Obama same with McConnell. Mcconnell got his coal deal from Obama so he's equally worthless. These are the demons that govern this once great nation. I'll close by saying nobody in their right mind would stop working where I was treated like family and made a good living. Now I'm having to prove once again that I'm disabled when there is no treatment or cure for CFS/ME. I'm isolated in my house either in bed or recliner taking pain medicine and anti depressants. I have to see my Doctor's every three months and pay for nine medications I have to takes. If my Wife God bless her left me I'd be in the streets not in our house that we still owe $135000. The stress,guilt and humiliation being a burden to society isn't what I invisioned but it's my reality. It's been two months since I turned in my CDR and haven't received any notification from social security. So everyday I go to the mailbox I wait for my fate to show up from the powers at be.....