Apparently, John McCain makes $58k a year in tax-free disability pay. He makes $145k a year as a US senator. His wife makes...
Well, actually, we have no idea what his wife makes.
As a disabled man trying to live on just shy of $11k a year in SSD, I'm outraged.
Please understand - I think our veterans, and especially our disabled veterans, DESERVE the best (although McCain does not). I also believe that words have meaning, and when McCain prides himself on not using earmarks, this makes him the worst kind of hypocrite: a selfish one. Pork for his constituents is out of the question, but federal, tax-free money for himself? Bring it on. The fact that he doesn't refuse money he doesn't need while decrying government waste is too rich.
And apparently, he's "technically" disabled.
McCain campaign strategist Mark Salter said Monday night that McCain was technically disabled. "Tortured for his country -- that is how he acquired his disability," Salter said.
I was born disabled - I have Arthrogryposis, and I am more disabled than McCain will ever be. No, I wasn't a POW, and I admire him for all he went through for this country. The simple fact is, while people like me live below the poverty line, McCain is making over five times as much without financial need. If I make too much money via a job, I lose my benefits. McCain does not. And employment is much more difficult for me to get than it is for him.
There is something deeply wrong with our system where the blind and disabled are allowed to live in poverty, made to account for every penny they have (including life insurance) or risk losing their benefits, and if they manage to find work despite their disability they are cut off even if they can't afford the health and aid care they lose as well, but a man married to a millionaire and making a six figure income gets his money regardless.
Shame on you, John McCain. Leave the disability money for those veterans and disabled who truly need it.