From Raw Story:
Cotton is certainly right that there are many rural areas of the country with a high incidence of disability. My firm represents many Social Security disability claimants who live in such areas in North Carolina. Let me suggest a theory to explain what is going on in these rural areas. Manufacturing has gone to hell in this country. Also, there are far fewer jobs in agriculture and mining. These economic changes have hit rural areas hard. There has been population decline in those areas as younger, healthy people have moved to other areas of the country to find jobs. Those left behind are older and sicker. They have poor access to health care. A high incidence of Social Security disability claims is to be expected. This country has a serious problem with opioid abuse but it's a national problem which is not caused by Social Security disability benefits since those benefits are not paid for drug abuse.
We need to be working hard as a nation to restore manufacturing jobs and to deal with opioid abuse instead of looking for scapegoats.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) suggested on Monday that population decline and drug abuse in poor areas could be the result of too many people on Social Security disability.
Speaking to the conservative Heritage Foundation on Monday, Cotton warned that communities with high a percentage of residents on Social Security disability had reached a tipping point that was linked to population decline. But he said that communities which used fewer benefits were enjoying a population increase.
“It’s hard to say what came first or caused the other, population decline or increased disability usage,” Cotton opined. “Or maybe economic stagnation caused both. Regardless, there seems to be at least at the county and regional level something like a disability tipping point.”
“When a county hits a certain level of disability usage, disability becomes a norm,” he continued. “It becomes an acceptable way of life and alternative source of income to a good paying full-time job as opposed to a last resort safety net program to deal with catastrophic injury and illness.”The are at least a couple of problems with Cotton's theory. First, the incidence of disability in the U.S. has been going down, not up. If Social Security disability is responsible for population decline and drug abuse, you'd think those problems would be getting better, not worse. Second, U.S. Social Security disability benefits are stingy compared to those in other developed countries yet those other countries are not experiencing the ills that Cotton blames on Social Security disability.
Cotton is certainly right that there are many rural areas of the country with a high incidence of disability. My firm represents many Social Security disability claimants who live in such areas in North Carolina. Let me suggest a theory to explain what is going on in these rural areas. Manufacturing has gone to hell in this country. Also, there are far fewer jobs in agriculture and mining. These economic changes have hit rural areas hard. There has been population decline in those areas as younger, healthy people have moved to other areas of the country to find jobs. Those left behind are older and sicker. They have poor access to health care. A high incidence of Social Security disability claims is to be expected. This country has a serious problem with opioid abuse but it's a national problem which is not caused by Social Security disability benefits since those benefits are not paid for drug abuse.
We need to be working hard as a nation to restore manufacturing jobs and to deal with opioid abuse instead of looking for scapegoats.
Actually, Social Security disability benefits are paid for drug abuse when the abuse has caused end organ damage...
ReplyDeleteIs this what passes for intelligent discourse at the Heritage Foundation? I did not see a single study cited in the article. Was this just the personal opinion of one Arkansas Republican United States Senator?
ReplyDeleteQUOTE: “It’s hard to say what came first or caused the other, population decline or increased disability usage,” Cotton opined. “Or maybe economic stagnation caused both. Regardless, there seems to be at least at the county and regional level something like a disability tipping point.”
TRANSLATION: We don't know what is going on here, so I'll just propose a law to fix the unknown problem which has an unknown cause. Ready! Fire! Aim!
QUOTE: “When a county hits a certain level of disability usage, disability becomes a norm,” he continued. “It becomes an acceptable way of life and alternative source of income to a good paying full-time job as opposed to a last resort safety net program to deal with catastrophic injury and illness.”
Yes, Senator, people just love trading good paying full time jobs to receive a poverty level income and sleep on their brother-in-law's couch.
Alternate theory to bolster the theory of people get busted up and broken in their former blue and pink collar manufacturing jobs that have departed the country and end up on SSDI, while at the same time the young people in that area flee it: people that get on disability in high cost areas move to those areas of former manufacturing because it's now cheap to live there. Agony and misery love company and there's less social stigma to live on disability in one of those high disability population areas, than one with few people drawing it.
ReplyDeleteIf you're over 50 and don't like the cold to begin with: why wouldn't you move to a cheap place in Alabama and live with all the other folks there on disability?
IF all we have are legislators Like Cotton giving his analysis's's's's, then this country is worse off than even I could ever imagine. God, do we ever need help in electing statesmen with a brain, and not sloshed with that stuff called white lightning or moon shine or whatever other mash they're making.
ReplyDeleteCome on, give the guy a break. He was speaking to the Heritage Foundation. You don't need to have proof or logic to support a theory when speaking to that audience. You just need to say something consistent with what they want to hear (government help for anyone besides the rich and corporations is bad). I'm sure he got a standing ovation.
ReplyDeleteWorkers that have paid into the system and become stuck with disabilities that prevent them from doing substantial gainful employment are not the blame. Where they live is irrelevant.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the good Senator should consult his own constituents for the answer to his query. Arkansas has nearly twice the percentage of people on disability as the national average, and his old Congressional district's median income is 66% of the national average.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, his old district grew in population from 2000 to 2010, so I'm not seeing what he sees. But then again I'm not a nut either.
HuffPo examines Cotton's remarks and links to a CBPP studey that shows that nearly of the state-level geographic variation in disability receipt reflects four factors: low education, older population, few immigrants, and blue-collar industrial mix.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tom-cotton-disability_564113b0e4b0411d30722881
Perhaps he should take a look at today's Guardian article on the poorest town in America?
ReplyDeleteHave a neighbor that is 56 yrs old never held a job on the books and is on dust sells it and uses it EVERYDAY! Works everyday her friend has work cutting grass he is a landscaper, she lives in a 3 bedroom home with a dog and hud pays her rent she gets food stamps and ssi money. On top of the pcp she sells. Makes out better then I do who worked and and payed into ssd. She is defrauding the whole system ssi and welfare and no one cares. So I'm trying to pay property taxes and pay her way and mine.and no one looks into this. Why work dollar for dollar she makes more off the system then I do working and screwing my body up for life. Hmmm.makes sense to me I guess. Should be a drug addict and be high on pcp and you can pass any mental test anyone may have.
ReplyDeletevWilmer - if you suspect social security disability fraud, feel free to call 1-800-269-0271 and report it. Otherwise, your supposed anecdote is not particularly persuasive one way or another.
ReplyDeleteAgree with most of the points Mr. Hall. But why should America restore manufacturing jobs? I grew up in a rural area and adapted when the market changed.
ReplyDeletePeople in these rural areas are not as dumb as you are implying. They can adapt (or at least their children) to a changing market. Never understood why any industry (including the scumbag banks who caused the recession in 2008) NEEDS to be saved.