Here's a criticism of that NPR show which caused them to change the web version.

I'll help with that book, Classic. Which does your son qualify for? SSI or SSDI? I'm hoping SSDI, since at least his disability check would be a little bigger and way off in the future, he'd get your social security survivor's benefits (if they even still exist then).

As for group homes or any other type of assisted housing - unfortunately I come as the bearer of more bad tidings. The non partisan Center for Budget and Policy Analysis just put out their latest report on housing for the disabled and low income seniors. Thanks to the sequester, 140,000 households will lose their housing vouchers this year alone.

The Housing Programs have been under attack for some time now and this is only the latest in a sequence of blows. If no changes are made to the budget cuts required by the sequester, 500,000 families headed by those with disabilities and low income seniors will have lost their housing by 2021.

When I think of your son, when I think of my friend Clarity Rose (also brain injured) back in Colorado Springs, when I think of so many I know who suffer from disabling conditions, it just breaks my heart. How much lower can people go than to attack some of the most defenseless and vulnerable people in our society – the disabled?

Every disability brings its own unique hardships to those who suffer from it, but brain injuries just suck so bad. Even a “mild” brain injury can be completely destructive to a person’s ability to function. And most of the time, people with brain injuries look just fine, even appear to act just fine if you don’t see them often or if you’re not around to witness the tremendous effort that goes into accomplishing the smallest thing.

“Looks OK to me. My brother hit me on the head with a baseball bat when I was 6 and I’m just fine."

Yeah, other that big hole where your compassion and decency used to be.

I'll help with that book, Classic. Which does your son qualify for? SSI or SSDI? I'm hoping SSDI, since at least his disability check would be a little bigger and way off in the future, he'd get your social security survivor's benefits (if they even still exist then).

As for group homes or any other type of assisted housing - unfortunately I come as the bearer of more bad tidings. The non partisan Center for Budget and Policy Analysis just put out their latest report on housing for the disabled and low income seniors. Thanks to the sequester, 140,000 households will lose their housing vouchers this year alone.

The Housing Programs have been under attack for some time now and this is only the latest in a sequence of blows. If no changes are made to the budget cuts required by the sequester, 500,000 families headed by those with disabilities and low income seniors will have lost their housing by 2021.

When I think of your son, when I think of my friend Clarity Rose (also brain injured) back in Colorado Springs, when I think of so many I know who suffer from disabling conditions, it just breaks my heart. How much lower can people go than to attack some of the most defenseless and vulnerable people in our society – the disabled?

Every disability brings its own unique hardships to those who suffer from it, but brain injuries just suck so bad. Even a “mild” brain injury can be completely destructive to a person’s ability to function. And most of the time, people with brain injuries look just fine, even appear to act just fine if you don’t see them often or if you’re not around to witness the tremendous effort that goes into accomplishing the smallest thing.

“Looks OK to me. My brother hit me on the head with a baseball bat when I was 6 and I’m just fine."

Yeah, other than that big hole where your compassion and decency used to be.

Bastards. They're all fucking bastards. God, I hate them. I really do. I'd forgotten what it was like to have this boiling rage just under the surface. I'd forgotten just how bad it gets when they get their way.

We're following you down into the pit and we're increasing our speed.

The unfairness of it burns a hole through any decency our societies have managed to claw together. Not good enough that people be shattered by circumstances beyond their control, or that the very weakest and most vulnerable be made to suffer the most insufferable cuts, they must also carry the moral and emotional blame for society's ills.


I've been into my austerity thread twice this morning intending to post an article about the impact on poorer families but I just don't have it in me to set that stall out again.

I hate them, I hate them, I hate them. They are lacking in compassion and decency.

Maybe that is their disability...

I heard this recently:


Corporate Taxes as a Percentage of Federal Revenue
1955 . . . 27.3%
2010 . . . 8.9%

Corporate Taxes as a Percentage of GDP
1955 . . . 4.3%
2010 . . . 1.3%

Individual Income/Payrolls as a Percentage of Federal Revenue
1955 . . . 58.0%
2010 . . . 81.5%

Bend over, we'll drive.

Corporations don't pay tax, they collect it. 100% of taxes paid by corporations are passed along to consumers. Lower corporate taxes means lower prices to us and less rationale to affect politics via the tax code.

Maybe you have heard of the Tillamook Cheese Factory.
It is a producer of cedar cheese on the Oregon coast and a tourist stop.

Tillamook and the surrounding area are not growing in population.
It is no longer a major port for the timber industry (almost dead).
Head Start, etc., programs are being cut back due to cuts in funding.

Right now, work is under way to expand Runway 13-31 at the Tillamook Airport
(federal and state money) to accommodate large freight transports.
This multi-million $ construction is only to accommodate the Tillamook Cheese Factory.

Now this:
The Oregonian
Lori Tobias
January 06, 2012

Announcement of cuts at Tillamook Cheese Factory jolts coastal community

Adak will certainly find a way to justify this waste of corporate welfare.
.

Rather an inefficient network. Why not cut and package in Tillamook where it's aged, rather than Mountain Home? Be that as it may, I'll bet the answer to the change is in Salt Lake City. What did Salt Lake City offer the cheese company to move their operations there? Oh and how much of that offer comes from federal money... or Bain?

Rather an inefficient network. I suspect it was an efficient tax break. Not making a finished product in one place. The largest manufacturer of electric blankets was in my town. They made a few parts in other towns to beat that tax.

[grouch]So it would be in effect a consumption tax but easier to collect than a VAT? Speaking of politics in the tax code, are there not businesses like hedge funds which are presently focused less on consumers and more on stripping businesses and gaming the tax code anyway? I feel like I need to question much libertarian received wisdom because it appears the middle-class has disappeared by following certain conservative policies without skepticism. In my gut, I see the government and corporations working together against the interests of humans. We may be the consumers, but we are also the product being bought and sold.[/grouch]

I will never understand why your son, who is genuinely disabled had to fight for benefits, and my 20 year old otherwise healthy junkies all get SSDI and Medicare.

Dude, did you see what happened to the middle class in that video? ^

I don't understand that, either. Drug addicts and alcoholics are not eligible for either SSI or SSDI. The merest hint of that in your medical records and they turn you down. I'm also surprised that a 20 year old junkie would have worked and paid enough into the system to qualify for SSDI and medicare, rather than the SSI that a person of 20 would normally qualify for.

The differences that exist between the big cities of the North East versus the rural regions and small towns of Colorado boggle my mind.
Is corruption that rampant in places like Philly and NYC? Here people on SSI/SSDI must go through a re-certification process every couple of years or so. Do people pay off doctors to give a diagnosis of complete and permanent disability? And if so, where do they get the money to do that on an income of $720.00/month?

Serious question. I can't understand how different it is here from the way it works there.