5.4 Million Join Disability Rolls Under Obama
See our previous post - Food Stamp Spending Doubled Since 2008. Welfare Spending Nearing $1 Trillion a Year - LINK.
How do and a half million people become disabled since the election of a president? This cannot be simply chalked up to the wars because the Afghan and Iraq wars have resulted in 35,000 wounded. They might not even be a part of this number as those on VA disability are often counted separately. Perhaps we can estimate that 50,000 have PTSD and need mental health services. But let us face the music shall we? Much of this is due to the Democrat’s repeal of the very successful Gingrich/Clinton Welfare Reform Law. Welfare Reform’s repeal was buried in the Obama Stimulus Bill. Think of how much harder it is for people who are genuinely disabled to get care. IBD:
A record 5.4 million workers and their dependents have signed up to collect federal disability checks since President Obama took office, according to the latest official government data, as discouraged workers increasingly give up looking for jobs and take advantage of the federal program. This is straining already-stretched government finances while posing a long-term economic threat by creating an ever-growing pool of permanently dependent working-age Americans. Since the recession ended in June 2009, the number of new enrollees to Social Security's disability insurance program is twice the job growth figure. (See nearby chart.) In just the first four months of this year, 539,000 joined the disability rolls and more than 725,000 put in applications. As a result, by April there were a total of 10.8 million people on disability, according to Social Security Administration data released this week. Even after accounting for all those who've left the program — about 700,000 drop out each year, mainly because they hit retirement age or died — that's up 53% from a decade ago.