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.”
And according to Cotton, that was just the beginning of the bad news for communities with above average disability claims.
“At a certain point when disability keeps climbing and become endemic, employers will struggle to find employees or begin or continue to move out of the area,” he said. “The population continues to fall and a downward spiral kicks in, driving once thriving communities into further decline.”
“Not only that, but once this spiral begins, communities could begin to suffer other social plagues as well, such as heroin or meth addiction and associated crime.”
Cotton revealed that he planned to introduce legislation that would single out non-permanent disability recipients and set a timeline for them to return to work.
Disabled people who are not ready to return to work would be forced to reapply for disability benefits, Cotton said.
“These reforms won’t solve all the problems of Social Security disability but they will address one of the most urgent crises in the program,” he concluded. “And the one, perhaps, most corrosive to effected communities.”
Filed under: General Problems
I find these comments fascinating.
As in all things which involve humans, there are some people who scam the disability system. It seems to me that the scammers are the ones that become embedded in our brains and then all or most disability seekers are deemed deadbeats.
However, it is my perception, that most people who visit this site and also those who post here are conservative.Tom Cotton beat a centrist democrat to earn his Senate seat. It is also my perception that republicans are for personal responsibility which goes against welfare wealth transfers involved with SS disability payments.
You might say that, I deserve my disability because I worked and paid into the systems, but people who are on disability take much, much more out of the system than they ever put in, and when they collect disability payments they are taking from the producer or as Mitt Romney and Ayn Rand call them “makers” and they are in-effect “takers” in the system.
Seems to me that many of the people on disability are feeling the Bern of Bernie Sanders, but probably voted for conservatives who really do want to take away your free stuff of which disability is.
I see no problem with you receiving it, but to some extent I favor Democratic Socialize which is what Social Security Disability is. It is a redistribution of earnings from those who are able to work to those who are unable. It is Socialism.
Not everyone on disability live in poor areas. You cannot take a group of people on disability and lump into one category. It’s not right nor is it fair and accurate. That’s like saying only poor people are drug addicts. Not true! There is plenty enough hoops and paper work to jump through waiting for disability. Most people are turned down the first time anyway creating more problems then necessary. He knows nothing about it.
Isn’t it funny how a short term disability insurance company like Unum wants to be involved with the reform of SSI & SSDI? Yes, I collected benefits from Unum for approximately a year prior to applying for my SSDI claim. My bennifits ran out and I was still unable to return to work, even though I still tried to against my doctors orders but loosing my disability income put me into financial hardship. I worked a total of 1 and a half weeks before the pain was to unbearable to continue. Unum just as workman’s compensation wants every one that they can working so they can collect their premium payments. So just maybe we should look into campaign contributions from these companies to see which politicians they are helping to keep in office. Yes Cotton is an idiot but probably just another pawn in the corporate games to have political votes be in their favor. Plus for some reason all these nut case politicians seem to be in the Bible belt or very religious Republicans.
Kill this idiot.
It never ceases to amaze me how many people fall for this intellectually stunted M.O. This guy has an agenda. He cherry picks certain criteria, that at best establish a casual relationship between the his already established “indicators” of The Problem and his already established conclusion. The relationship, as I stated, is casual at best and turns out to be non sequitur in many cases. His/Her fellows in the chamber are either stupid enough to not question the relationship or are just playing along to support his/her pet agenda so as to have his/her support later on their’s. The result is that we are stuck with another law that discriminates against the truly needy because the original legislator presumed, in his/her sense of pseudo-moral superiority, that everyone receiving a given benefit was undeserving. The individual’s supporters anoint him/her a hero to the cause and reelect the individual to office….wash, rinse, repeat.
This is ultimately our own fault. We keep electing these clowns to office because we’re either apathetic, distracted by our own creature comforts and self-absorbed mind set or are just plain ignorant as to how the machine turns. We either become a very loud and vocal minority and brow beat the sub-500 count of folks inside the Beltway into doing our bidding for a change or we use our voice to educate the rest of the population and influence a change in the kinds of individuals that get sent to D.C.
It is already a mess in the U.S. regarding SSD. Good grief, by the time any individual is granted, if the return to work were possible, they would have already returned to work. Yes, there is fraud, there will always be 10% in any group, who commit fraud!
Currently, while waiting for SSD, either a person will return to work (many times doing further damage to their bodies); become homeless (now no permanent physical address); die due to the health issue or commit suicide) or just give up on the claim! Being 2 yrs into the process and 3 yrs unable to attempt to work (at home or outside the home), living off my husband’s teaching salary (which according to all assistance programs, is too much money to qualify); if it were not for family and friends helping us monetarily, we would have had to either try to figure out a way to live with family or friends or go to the streets!
I honestly believe, SSD makes the process so lengthy, hoping that any of the above occur and then the claim is not paid! I look back at photos of myself prior to all of this happening and remember all the compliments of “You do not look like you are “fill in any age.” I look at photos through the time of disability and think I look much older than I truly am! The disease, injury, dealing with medical care and financial issues, really takes a toll on a person.
So, now more new qualifications being introduced and who is going to determine individual’s health and being able to return to work? Oh, yes, bureaucrats! The only hope is, maybe they will be as slow at determining a person’s ability to return to work, as they are in determining if a person’s is eligible for the original disability claim!
Unum, my ex-long term disability insurance company, has offered to help Congress flush out fraud from the SSDI review process. Something similar happened in England’s national health system, where the government hired a private company (with ties to Unum) to change the disability approval process. For instance, the disabled in England could apply and be approved for a designation that meant they were permanently disabled. No more reviews and having to prove your disability over and over again. But the private company took that away, so now the disabled are forced into all the stress, effort, and paperwork that goes with this continuing process. And this private company changed the definition of disability to be one that would only fit a small percentage of the disabled. It’s a mess over there in England, and it looks like that mess is coming to the U.S.
Everyone on disability in poor areas are not addicted to drugs. Maybe if poor people could get decent paying jobs, with decent benefits, and buy decent non-GMO food without pesticides, E. Coli, Salmonella, Preservatives, MSG, and meat, seafood, and poultry that isn’t messed up with hormones and pollution, dairy products without rBGH, carrageenan, and other chemicals and such that are killing us and causing chronic, autoimmune diseases that make us disabled, we wouldn’t be on Social Security Disability. Quit blaming poor, ill people for a situation not of their own making. Really, who has control over all of these things? It isn’t poor people!!
He makes no sense at all. I became disabled in 2000 and my health has steadily gotten worse. Does he not think I would rather work as an RN making triple what I do on disability? Believe me I would! Also me being on disability has nothing to do with population decline! One does not have anything to do with the other. Any jobs that open up in East TN frequently have hundreds if not thousands of worthy applicants so we need more good paying jobs. Maybe that would help the addiction problem we have throughout the U.S. A lot of people become addicts when they have no hope. Talk to the experts. They will tell you that addiction is a mental health issue. You sir, Mr. Cotton, are an ignorant man and need to be voted out. No wonder we can’t get anything fixed in government with people like you running it!!!!
I agree that there are more people who are disabled then should be. I also agree that more people on disability live in more depressed demographic areas then in middle and upper class ares. Now the questions should be why do more people living on disability reside in poor areas? Why are these people disabled? The answers to these questions are the workplace safety requirements and the fact that people who were injured at the workplace didn’t receive the proper medical treatment or diagnosis after an injury.
For instance, in my case I have had several back and neck injuries while working. My first was when I was just 21 years old. I was sent to an occupational medical clinic and the first thing I was given there was a drug test and it was negative of course. I was working at a job where back strains and injuries were very common. I was prescribed viciden, muscle relaxers and physical therapy. I worked at this job for 3 years and injured my back 4 times.
My next work related back injury happened when I was in my mid 30s and it was because of a slip and fall on ice injury. Again I was sent to occupational medical clinic and nothing changed in 10 years. Negative on drug test, prescription drugs and physical therapy then returned to work asap. I worked for this company for 10 years and had an additional 5 back and neck injuries there. Never once at either job was I given an MRI. It wasn’t until I started showing signs of nerve damage and chronic pain that my family doctor ordered an MRI which showed disk bulging from C2 thru C7 and L3 thru L6. So after 8 separate surgical procedures I am now among the disabled. To tell you the truth, I’d rather be working.
What a tool! If I could work I would in a flash and it is so hard to get our disability already its unreal! Took me 5 years! I am sorry some diseases are a life long ordeal until they kill us! I hope this guy gets ousted when he is up for re-election!
Amen Stacey I totally agree! I’m still fighting for it after 6 yrs. Yet people who fake a disability seem to have no problem getting it the first time! It ridiculous!!