GOP Assault on Social Security Could be 'Death Sentence' for Nation's Disabled

[unhappycamper]

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/02/12/gop-assault-social-security-could-be-death-sentence-nations-disabled



The claim that either the old-age or disability trust funds has run dry is 'one of the hoariest lies in the conservatives' playbook.'

GOP Assault on Social Security Could be 'Death Sentence' for Nation's Disabled
Deirdre Fulton, staff writer
Thursday, February 12, 2015

Republican opposition to a plan that would shore up a critical government safety-net program amounts to a new front in the GOP's class war and could equal a "death sentence" for many poor recipients, defenders of Social Security said this week.

The White House has proposed shifting money between two Social Security accounts in order to avert deep cuts in disability payments—specifically, reallocating a small portion of the Social Security payroll tax from its old-age account to disability for five years—as has been done numerous times in the past.

The AARP and other elder advocacy groups support the strategy, which would extend by 17 years the life of the disability reserve, currently projected to be exhausted by the end of 2016, according to acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration Carolyn Colvin.

And it would save lives, she added. "I don’t want to be dramatic, but I've worked with this population my whole career," Colvin said at a Senate Budget Committee hearing held Wednesday. Cutting already paltry disability benefits, she declared, would "give them a death sentence."

[TexasTowelie]

1. K&R.

Glad to be the first rec.

[Enthusiast]

2. There is no good reason for Republicans to pursue this.

On 5 of the 11 occasions when money was moved from one segment to the other, money was moved from the disability side to the retirement side. This is a routine deal.

The GOP wants to keep telling the public that Social Security is going broke. And they tell the public they know how to fix it. They say this even though they really want to privatize Social Security and hand it over to Wall Street.

Every fucking TV program reinforces this Republican mythology.

Social Security is the single most soundly financed thing in the entire fucking government.

[yuiyoshida]

3. GOP Death Panels

n/t

[rurallib]

4. just got a response from my tea bag senator - Grassley

you can almost guess what it says:
'blah - blah - blah - Social Security going broke - blah - blah - blah
If we take out of the old age pot then it just goes broke faster - blah - blah - blah
I'll stop all the fraud that is going on - blah - blah - blah'

3 full paragraphs of corporate lies.

[justhanginon]

5. "give them a death sentence". I was not there but I would imagine

after commissioner Colvin stated this, the republican members arose clapping their hands, laughing and giving each other high fives. God how I hate everything these greedy, evil, selfish bastards stand for.

[MisterP]

6. it's not a Republican myth anymore if a Dem president insists on it

[1HappyDemocrat]

7. it is too sad

They are after Social Security because they do not want to pay out to the retiring baby boomer generation. When the number of people retiring was much smaller than the tax paying, working baby boomer generation prior to their retirement the government enjoyed a surplus and borrowed from this for other things rather than saving the money for when the baby boomer generation retired. Now that it is time to pay the benefits to the baby boomer generation the Republicans would like to see Social Security done away with. Those benefits were paid for. The people deserve their money. It is truly sad.