Yep. $2533 (per month) or $30,396/yr for 2013.

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

I don't know if it is difficult, that is why I asked how much you can make. It appears a family could get about $50,000 a year max if you had a high paying job before the disability. Or about 10,000 if single or 15,000 for family if you had a lower paying job. 15,000 is not a lot to live on most places. I would not want to raise a family on it.

Of course if you are scamming the system and still working for cash, and Disability you get is just extra money, but for those working poor who become disabled, this is a fairly minimal benefit.

Which party is that? What SS and Medicare reforms have they suggested, because I am not aware of any? I'm waiting for the Republican's to put Medicare Part D on the table and propose we get rid of it. Instead they want to beat the drum about The Affordable Care Act, when they know they have no chance. If the Republican admitted Part D was a mistake, do you think the Democrats are going to disagree? I can hear Harry Reid now, coming to the defense of the policies of GW Bush.

Likewise, aside from Coburn (who I won't tarnish by calling a Republican), where are all these 'pubs looking to reform SS disability? C'mon, the supposedly "liberal media" (e.g. anyone who is not Fox) does a major story on abuse of SS disability and the 'pubs still have no balls? 60 minutes threw out a ton of political cover here, you can blame all abuses on lawyers, the fraud is so blatant, who would oppose doing something to address it (unless you were faking it when you claimed you were looking to reform the entitlements)?

There are a lot more outraged independents than people on the gravy train of undeserved benefits.

True. Based on the 60 Minutes piece, it was closer to 100% of applicants (as long as you had the right lawyer).

I'm assuming you are getting at the fact that states have to actually balance budgets, at least to the extent that they can't just print money and run indefinite and growing deficits.

States are smart, as someone pointed out, the "This American Life Story" (crazy that the "liberal" media like NPR would want to do a story about people scamming government handouts;) was all about States taking their expensive problems and making them the Feds problem. Why not, when the Federal government doesn't really try to fight it. Sure we'll just borrow more money to pay for it.

I stand corrected. you said "burn it down". Obviously, it was my ignorance that confused me.

Well obviously it is. I said burn it down and rebuild it from scratch. That is quite the opposite of killing the program.

You are looking for a fight but are too ignorant to realize there isn't one to be had. Well, except for your apparent asinine position that we allow this failing system, which will soon run out of money, stand in its present form. That is ignorant. No other term for it.

One of this nation's biggest problems is educated people like you who know so little.

You probably also believe that the NFL using pink penalty flags for the month of October actually makes a difference in the number of women who will suffer from breast cancer this year.

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

When I was on active duty, I injured my right hand and ended up with a partially functional right pinkie finger. I basically cut all the tendons that curl the finger, resulting in a permanently extended finger unless I manually curl it using my left hand.

When I got out of the Navy, I did the standard visit to the VA to establish that I was a vet and living in their area. The Dr. tried to get me to apply for a 10% disability at that time, which I refused and opted for a 0% disability that registered the injury but did not pay anything out. The Dr. told me I was "throwing away" money, to which I replied "Maybe, but every dollar I do not take will hopefully go to someone who really is disabled and needs that support".

Segue to a few months ago when someone at work who noticed my very polite right pinkie. They asked about it, I told them how it happened, and they also told me that I should go get what I "deserve" for my injury. I still disagree, I have never been limited by the injury in any way other than I cannot use a PR-24 side handle baton. I can handle any firearm, type on a typewriter, ride motorcycles, bicycles and drive trucks up to a 5 ton Army cargo truck. And, since I am no longer in a law enforcement job, the fact that I cannot use a side handle baton is irrelevant because I am not legally entitled to carry that weapon any longer.

The fraud in the Federal system is beyond anyone reading this threads imagination. I personally know of Mexican nationals, not even residents of the US, who make thousands of dollars from welfare, WIC, SSD and all the other systems that basically give money away with little or no oversight. One in particular would cross the border every month, file for a permisso (permission to go beyond 15 miles from the border crossing), and then would visit multiple post office boxes in California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas before she would drive all the way back to Baja Norte, Mexico where she owned a factory producing clothing. She drove a $90K car and usually made more than $10K from each monthly trip. I tried to contact the offices and state programs that administered the Federally funded programs, and only one would even talk to me (Texas). They told me they could do nothing about it, that their job was to give the money away and another office would look for any fraud. When I called the fraud office, they told me that they did not have the funding to investigate that fraud since it did not exceed $25K and would not even take my information for the record.

This is just what one person working on the border saw. Multiply that by the number of people crossing the border, both north and south, and add it to the millions of people living in the US who are as equally willing to defraud the benefit system in the US. Bureaucracies do not grow by reducing the number of people who they service, they grow by adding to that clientele and increasing the funding passing through their accounts. There is no incentive to reduce the number of people in the system. There is a disincentive to reduce the clientele as the number of customer service reps is directly related to the work load, while the number of managers and executive (and their pay levels), is related to the number of customer service reps, support personnel and the funding they disburse.

The system is broken and the only way we will ever fix it is to fundamentally change how it works. Imagine if the offices that investigate fraud would get a portion of the fraud they discover added to their budget. Add a simple check and balance to make sure that the fraud enforcement is fair and reasonable, and voila, there might be less fraud in the system. Until we do that or something that would reduce the fraud without dumping the legitimate clientele on the street, we will face the risk that the WHOLE system will crumble. Because how long will it be until the bureaucracy decides that I MUST apply for the disability in my right hand, along with everyone else because those who take such money are seen as oxen with rings in their noses by the politicians, dumb but capable of being led by the masters in DC.

My 40 year old ex wife gets about $1400 for herself, and $350 for each of our two kids. Meanwhile, she owns a horse training business where she claims 20,000 miles per year on her truck, takes care of and trains hunter jumper horses, goes fox hunting every weekend, wins horse shows, and claims a yearly net income of -$30,000 per year.

Or that folks on worker's comp have a history of working?