Via the ever-excellent Digby comes the shocking editorial by Peter Orzsag, the former White House director of the OMB, and the new incoming Vice-Chairman of the Global Banking business at Citigroup, on the Social Security Disability Insurance program, which has long been a safety net for disabled Americans who are unable to find work.
Peter Orszag is introducing the new image of "disability queen" to weaken Social Security Disability Income as a safety net for Americans. Digby explains this best here:
Now he's introducing the new image of the "disability queen" to weaken the program even more.
Evidently, there are a lot of people who qualify for SSI but have, until now, avoided applying for the problem because they were able to find some work. A lot of them have lost their jobs in this recession and are now applying. And Orszag is worried that this is bad for their character. You see, once in they lose all desire to work and will just hang around in the wheel chairs enjoying their leisure time instead of being the productive citizens they should be.
Peter Orzsag apparently thinks that the reason that disability claims are going up is because people aren't finding work, so they're just "taking advantage" of this program that they are qualified for. This is a standard right-wing canard that Republicans and neoliberals like to use in cutting social safety net programs, and privatizing them instead:
Today, however, many people with disabilities are able to engage in some form of work — even if they can’t admit that and still keep their insurance benefits.
It's not about being able to engage in some kind of work, it's about job discrimination. Many of my deaf friends are disabled, and they are on SSDI income. They want to be able to find work, but there's rampant job discrimination here, which I have written about here previously. Also, those who are disabled and are currently employed, should not be kept from filing disability claims when they are laid off, and nor should they have to add more of their paychecks to "private" disability insurance companies which they would have to use if unemployed, and forced to have their disabilities "evaluated" by private disability insurance companies.
Anyone remember the reason why the pre-existing condition ban is in the health insurance reform bill? Just saying...
Such coverage would provide people who have a work-limiting disability with vocational assistance, workplace accommodation and limited wage replacement. All of these benefits would kick in within 90 days of the onset of disability, to avoid the problems with delayed assistance that have plagued efforts to reform public disability insurance. Private employers would have an incentive to prevent their workers from having to file disability applications, because their insurance premiums would rise in response to higher disability rates.
And one of the solutions that Orszag proposes for repealing denials of disability claims by these private insurance disability companies is to "to appeal any such evaluations to state government agencies." Given that there is the problem of regulatory capture by those closely tied to the industries they are supposed to monitor, I don't see this ending well for disabled Americans who are laid off.
Cutting or limiting safety net programs such as social security disability income isn't the answer to unemployment for these disabled Americans. Creating jobs is the answer to unemployment, and we need actual stimulus that is directly stimulative, doesn't run out, and isn't tied to tax cuts for the wealthy. Digby has it right in the closing paragraphs of her post on Orszag's "disability queen" attack on Social Security.
I haven't even heard Republicans make this argument for cutting social security but you can be sure that you'll be hearing more of it. The idea that the unemployed (who are already seen as hardly better than "illegal aliens" in the minds of a good number of Americans) are gaming the Social Security system will give impetus for more cuts and making it harder for legitimate claimants. But it will be a nice new market for the poor insurance companies won't it? This new mandatory "private disability insurance" will be quite the bonanza, I'm sure.
Orszag has taken that job at Citibank. At this point it's probably wise to assume he's just doing what they're paying him to do --- taking advantage of his knowledge of the political thinking of the White House and the economic crisis to destroy the social safety net. But damn, putting the screws to the disabled who clearly qualify for SSI but would work if there were any jobs by making it harder for them to get SSI is just plain cruel.
It's not surprising that social safety net programs would be on the chopping block. But that's what happens when you put the payroll tax holiday in the tax cut deal, which was a Republican idea, and not a Democratic idea as the White House claims, which opened up Social Security to this line of attack.
We are watching the incoming attack on Social Security via the payroll tax holiday, which the White House has not made progressive by raising the payroll tax income cap above $108,600, and it's why we must urge our Democrats in the House and the Senate to stand firm on opposing this deal. If one supports this tax cut deal, then one cannot be credibly called a Democrat since this tax cut deal leads to the further dismantling of what made the Democratic Party---the New Deal programs.
It's time for us to fight to save the legacy of FDR in the Democratic Party. Here's how you can take action in saving the Democratic Party by opposing the tax cuts for the rich to save Social Security and other programs from the incoming Republican assault:
- Call your Democratic Senators and Representatives with these talking points below:
Please oppose the tax cut bailout of the wealthy. It increases the deficit at a time in our country when we can least afford it, and it further undermines Social Security by funding it as a welfare program through the replacement of funds lost through the payroll tax cut from the general revenue. I will vote for you in 2012 if you oppose the tax cuts for the rich.
- In addition to calling your elected officials, you can e-mail your Representative and your Senators as well.
- Also, one of the most effective actions you can take is to show up at your Congressmember's district office with as many people as you can to lodge a protest.
- Please click the Facebook "like" button on top to spread the word to as many people you can on Facebook! Also tweet this as well!
- Call these 54 Democrats who oppose the tax cut bailout of the wealthy on Wall Street, and THANK THEM for doing so:
Congressional Switchboard: (202) 224-3121