Reminds me of the tawdry Ronald Wilson Reagan trope about "welfare queens. " GAO says Social Security disability fraud is a problem, requiring solutions. New York Times reporters Stephanie Saul and Walt Bogdanich have documented how disability retirements in police departments and railroad retirements allow fraud to proliferate. But does our it Boy Governor conflate "injuries" with "disabilities?" Is his shoot from the hip holier than thou commenting style presidential? He sounds like a man with a paper head. Does DeSANTIS discredit his Yale Baseball Team and Harvard Law School pedigree and credentials with every passing day? Is DeSANTIS channeling a honkey tonk medley of George Corley Wallace, Donald Trump and Archie Bunker? Is DeSANTIS out of touch, all over the road, constantly showing the world that he's pig ignorant again? From Florida Politics:
Ron DeSantis talks ‘fake’ disabilities, alleges ‘massive’ fraud against Social Security program.
A.G. Gancarski, Florida Politics, January 7, 2024:
Ron DeSantis is sympathetic to people determined to be disabled by the Social Security Administration, but he’s not accepting all claims at face value.
“Either you’re disabled or you’re not,” DeSantis said Sunday in Iowa.
The Governor offered distinctions between people with injuries he deems to be legitimate, and those with “fake” disabilities who are scamming the system, citing a rogue “roofer” to illustrate the nefarious scheme.
Regarding people who are “disabled partially,” DeSantis said “maybe, you know, it’s good if you want to maybe work and earn some income,” before warning of a “fine line.”
“There are some people that will kind of fake being disabled then work and then they should, you know, whatever. But I do think that if somebody has a disability and it prevents them from reaching their full potential and they’re eligible fine. But if, then they can do some type of employment that could supplement, you know, I don’t think that that would be a bad thing and I think that’s a good incentive.’
“Now there’s a lot of fraud in the program and I think that’s been a huge issue,” DeSantis said, calling the problem “just massive.”
“I remember seeing instances where people were getting, you know, kind of top of the line as much disability as possible and then someone would get suspicious. They look. This guy is like, you know, a roofer like, he’s doing all right. Well, I mean, either you’re disabled or you’re not. So there has been a big problem with fraud.”
The Governor made the comments Sunday in Grimes, Iowa.
He was responding to a questioner who said people on disability were often “living in a van, living in buildings that should be condemned” because “they don’t have enough,” with many driven to suicide by their situations.
A.G. Gancarski
A.G. Gancarski has written for FloridaPolitics.com since 2014. He is based in Northeast Florida. He can be reached at AG@FloridaPolitics.com or on Twitter: @AGGancarski
2 comments:
Conservative Republicans also loathe VA benefits but they won't come out publicly against that for a myriad of reasons...not to mention some so called conservatives receive those benefits as well. But they will attack other social spending along with taxes of course. Also funny how they brag about how people moving here for the low lower taxes, but fail to realize people who do this are greedy and derelict in their duties to the societies that they left. California for example, their state tax isn't that high.. just people don't want to pay tax. It's not unaffordable. So what will Florida look like decades from now with high concentration of people who really mostly just care about themselves not to mention the rise in prices because of these people. Worst of both worlds?
Republicans want everyone back to work but they don't want to pressure companies to pay living wages...so until they do that they can't really complain. Better to receive meager money for doing nothing than being exploited doing something. Not to mention universal healthcare and education isn't on the Republican agenda either so quite obvious their goals are to merely keep money in hands that already have it. Isn't that the whole GOP platform these days besides right wing propaganda?
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