This morning I heard that this Mal-Administration wants to cut foreign aid, including for cricket to Pakistan and a Bob Dylan statue somewhere in Africa, and some third thing my brain just could absorb after the other two.
I also heard that they want to have reviews of people on disability every 2 years instead of every 7, and that they want to eliminate being unable to speak English as a disability. When you actually read the proposed rule it might make a little bit of sense, but the way it’s pitched in the media immediately translates into anti-immigrant dog whistling.
The every 2 year review of disability would not only make things worse for the actually disabled, it would increase the cost of administering an already underfunded program.
For an admittedly poor analogy, think of the “immigration courts” — with far too few “judges” (not real judges, btw, under the conventional meaning of that term in every other US court) and no lawyers for most of those going through the process. Then imagine fixing the problem by getting more actual judges and having enough lawyers familiar with immigration law to represent the 2 and 3 year olds (and most of the others) who literally have go to court with no one to help them!
If you have ever walked a friend or loved one through the process of trying to get disability you likely know what I’m going to say. It is a hellish process! Even people obviously seriously disabled are very often turned down not just the first time, but two or three or more times for lack of some piece of paper they don’t understand, inability to get a proper medical evaluation, or checking the wrong box on a form. People who died from their very legitimate disabilities get letters in their mailboxes on the day of their funeral saying they weren’t eligible. (True story, happened with a friend of mine who died of AIDS.)
Even people who try to get through the process with “help” from public agencies are often turned down. I’m sorry, a clerk in the General Relief office in downtown LA is NOT a disability specialist! A truly experienced attorney is very often needed, and just as often not available, to people who are living in tents on the street for lack of income to pay rent, forget about food and medical care.
The attorneys who specialize in this area of law are few, relatively speaking, but those who do the work are paid through the system, not by the disabled person or their family/friends.
God help us if this set of truly evil “rules” and "deficit reductions" is pushed through and sharpie-signed by You-Know-Who, just to “save money” and “bring down the deficit” that he himself has created with the collusion of McTurtle et al.