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“Other People’s Money” Is Running Out

DISABILITY TRUST FUND IS GOING UNDER … || By FITSNEWS || “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money,” Margaret Thatcher once said. Apparently that’s becoming a problem here in the “land of the free,” too.  Except it’s no longer “eventually.”  It’s next year….

DISABILITY TRUST FUND IS GOING UNDER …

|| By FITSNEWS || “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money,” Margaret Thatcher once said.

Apparently that’s becoming a problem here in the “land of the free,” too.  Except it’s no longer “eventually.”  It’s next year.

The federal government’s first entitlement land mine – the ever-expanding Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) trust fund – is going to run out of money in late 2016.  For those of you calendar-challenged, that’s smack dab in the middle of the next presidential campaign.

Fun!

According to Social Security trustees, the fund “now faces an urgent threat of reserve depletion, requiring prompt corrective action by lawmakers if sudden reductions or interruptions in benefit payments are to be avoided.”

“While legislation is needed to address all of Social Security’s financial imbalances, the need has become urgent with respect to the program’s disability insurance component,” the trustees stated.  “Lawmakers need to act soon to avoid automatic reductions in payments to DI beneficiaries in late 2016.”

A total of 11 million Americans currently receive an average monthly benefit of $1,017 from this program.  That pool of dependents has soared in recent years, too.

“The number of people with jobs aged 16 to 64 has decreased 338,000 since the beginning of 2008, despite the population that age increasing by 7.5 million, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,” Robert Romano of Americans for Limited Government noted back in January.  “Meanwhile, 2 million people including dependents went on disability in that time frame.”

“Yes, you read that correctly,” Romano added.  “More people have gone on disability than found jobs since 2008, even after you include seniors who are still working.”

Scary …

Also scary?  Social Security’s retirement fund is scheduled to run out of cash in 2035, while Medicare’s hospital trust fund – which is adding 10,000 new baby boomers a day – is scheduled to be depleted in 2030.

So yeah. Sooner or later the socialists really do run out of other people’s money … except the socialists are here.  And “sooner” is a lot closer than you may have thought.

UPDATE: Uh-oh.  Looks like sooner is a lot sooner than we thought.

***

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46 comments

Well? July 22, 2015 at 7:34 pm

When the only solution Republicans can come up with is to cut taxes and borrow money what do you expect?

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totally Fed UP!!! July 22, 2015 at 7:41 pm

Oh yes, yes, MORE DUMBOCRAPS DEMAGOGUERY, SPIN, LIES AND DECEIT!
Obama has increased the debt more than all other Presidents combined.
The Dumbocraps WILL NEVER HAVE ENOUGH OF OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY TO WASTE ON THEIR LEGALIZED VOTE BUYING.
Don’t get me wrong, the REPUGNACANTS are horrible too. I think they all need to be voted into their very lucrative, exorbitant

, gold plated retirements they have established for themselves with our money!
Screw all of em, vote them ALL out!

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Conservative "values" July 22, 2015 at 7:46 pm

More Conservative “values”

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For The Win July 22, 2015 at 8:53 pm

Alternative A: Spend money, but actually tax the rich to pay for it. (D)

Alternative B: Spend money, cut revenue, and borrow the difference. Blame all else on Democrats. (R)

Conservatives see absolutely no problem with selecting B, they do it every election.

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opengovernmentup July 23, 2015 at 4:24 am

It looks like the spending is done by conservatives while the give away money is done by the liberals

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CorruptionInColumbia July 22, 2015 at 7:35 pm

We’re running out of other peoples’ money to spend? Don’t tell Bob Coble. That kind of news would not be good for him in his weakened condition.

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CorruptionInColumbia July 22, 2015 at 7:38 pm

Meanwhile, according to people like John McCain and Lindsey Graham, we have shitloads of money to give to countries, regimes, and groups like ISIS, who hate our guts in hopes that they will like us.

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Buthow July 23, 2015 at 2:27 am Reply
Larry July 22, 2015 at 7:45 pm

And the % of minorities on disabilities in incredible…and it equals reparations.

Pure and simple…put blacks on guaranteed incomes and call it disability. Then let Hispanics come in and take the jobs previously held by blacks.

The Obama plan at its purest.

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RogueElephant July 22, 2015 at 10:14 pm

Allow both groups to vote Democrat and you have the complete package.

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Rakkasan July 23, 2015 at 12:21 pm

Maybe correlates/tracks with poverty and low education levels? Maybe?

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Victorious Secret July 22, 2015 at 7:55 pm

Disability is really hurting us? No kidding…especially when you have judges like this guy that reverse over 90% of their hearing officers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zadKLf7Q6aw

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TroubleBaby July 22, 2015 at 8:35 pm

That was great!

I had two older ladies that came to my office to clean every other week for about a year and a half. One day while cleaning one of them made the mistake of telling me that they were on disability…..while cleaning my office.

I found replacements and let them go the following week. It’s easy to have your own cleaning business when the government is subsidizing you of course.

On a topic of a similar vein, I once caught an employee stealing money from “petty cash”. He admitted it….and signed a statement admitting it to get his last check(less the petty cash) for the week when I fired him.

I thought that was that. He had the gall to try to collect unemployment. I sent a letter with a copy of his signed statement to the unemployment office.

Again, I thought that was that.

A month later, I get a fax literally 1 hour from an “appeal” hearing that this former employee made, disputing that he stole anything, trying to get unemployment. (my dumb ass accountant who does my payroll sat on the stupid thing for a day and sent it over to me, the unemployment office sent it to him, not me)

I called the unemployment office up and told them what happened, I said there was no way I could be there for the hearing and asked to reschedule…they said “no”…I asked how an appeal could be made given the former employee signed a confession that they had a copy of…..nothing but crickets as a response.

A week later I received notification that he was getting unemployment…which I couldn’t appeal…lol

The system is so broken on so many levels it’s unbelievable.

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Bible Thumper July 22, 2015 at 10:27 pm

Over the last six years their has been great changes in unemployment insurance in South Carolina. At the worst of the Great Recession, 5.88% of insured workers were receiving benefits many of them actually continued receiving benefits after getting another job. 109,672 recipients were receiving benefits. Feds also extended benefits for states with high unemployment. The state went into debt to the Feds by almost one billion dollars.
The state only recently paid off that debt. Now only 0.87% of insured workers are receiving unemployment benefits. A total of 16,115 recipients receiving a maximum of 20 weeks, but more likely getting another job before the 20 weeks expire.
http://www.oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/claims.asp

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TroubleBaby July 23, 2015 at 8:04 am

So you’re point is what? That the % of those collecting is small and any fraud not that important as a result?

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Bible Thumper July 23, 2015 at 8:37 am

58% of fraud was people who continued to collect after getting another job. That has been greatly reduced. As for for denying claims for those who quit or fired for cause, I don’t know anything specific. Only anecdotal info from HR people that it is better. The overall employment situation has improved.

Bible Thumper July 23, 2015 at 8:43 am

58% of fraud was people who continued to collect after getting another job. That has been greatly reduced. As for for denying claims for those who quit or fired for cause, I don’t know anything specific. Only anecdotal info from HR people that it is better. The overall employment situation has improved.

TroubleBaby July 23, 2015 at 9:05 am

So I ask again, what’s your point?

Bible Thumper July 23, 2015 at 9:24 am

The program is much better managed under Haley than under Sanford. Sanford, not only squandered a $800,000,000 surplus, half of it before the recession, but SC was $900,000,000 in debt within two months of Haley taking office. The debt was finally paid off about a month ago.

Don't Waste Your Time July 23, 2015 at 9:38 am

Improvements aren’t worthy of applaud to him.

TroubleBaby July 23, 2015 at 10:54 am

Not true. It’s all about context. If someone is only stealing $10 from my pocket instead of $20 should I be applauding them?

TroubleBaby July 23, 2015 at 10:45 am

So the program is functional now, you claim?

Their surplus/debt is not an indicator to me as to whether the program is functional or not from my perspective. All the do, like all government programs, is simply take more money from people/businesses when it isn’t functioning properly….so that’s not a metric that indicates “success” in my book.

Bible Thumper July 23, 2015 at 11:32 am

It has already been announced the rates of payroll deductions are to be reduced. They are required by Federal law to rebuild a suplus in case of another recession, first.

You’re determined not to let facts interfere with your “Subjective” opinions. The program cost a fifth of what it use to cost.

TroubleBaby July 23, 2015 at 12:30 pm

“It has already been announced the rates of payroll deductions are to be reduced.”

You’ve missed my entire argument.

“You’re determined not to let facts interfere with your “Subjective” opinions. The program cost a fifth of what it use to cost.”

Not only am I NOT doing what you claim here, you’ve missed my entire argument.

demarke July 23, 2015 at 10:34 am

They are supposed to mail notices 7 days or more prior to the appeal hearing. There’s got to be a way to take them to task for that if they didn’t provide proper notice of the hearing. Injunction maybe?

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TroubleBaby July 23, 2015 at 10:42 am

This was some time ago, it’s all done now and I moved on….even at the time you have to understand that as a business owner you are always weighing the cost of litigation(and its uncertainty) versus the opportunity costs involved(doing nothing vs something)…in the case of something like this the time & energy invested in getting the right thing to happen aren’t worth my time when compared to do other things to improve my business.

Still yet, it’s incredibly annoying and highlights the problems within the system in general.

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Tazmaniac July 22, 2015 at 9:16 pm

+100!

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Tazmaniac July 22, 2015 at 9:16 pm

When is the Federal Employee benefits and retirement money going the run out?

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idcydm July 23, 2015 at 6:58 am

When the 18 trillion stops growing.

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Squishy123 July 22, 2015 at 9:29 pm

11 million people collecting disability, of those 3 million are actually disabled.

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RogueElephant July 22, 2015 at 10:12 pm

At the risk of sounding like Shifty Henry. Three bums were sitting by the river. Jesus walked by and asked them what was their problem. The first said “I am blind”. Jesus touched his eyes and he could see. He thanked Jesus and went on his way. Jesus asked the second what his problem was ? “I am crippled.” Jesus touched his legs and he got up and walked. He thanked Jesus and went his way. The third bum started backing away saying ” Don’t touch me Jesus I’m on disability.”

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southmauldin July 22, 2015 at 10:55 pm

3 million? Maybe 1 million at the most.

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Nölff July 23, 2015 at 7:53 am

or 3

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tyronemamamakeskickasscollards July 23, 2015 at 10:57 am

Don’t forget you paid FICA taxes out of your paycheck so you can get the worker’s benefit if you are disabled.

When you get disability you also get Medcaid and Medicare, so it is a valuable insurance program.

The SSI disability is different. It comes from general tax revenue collections.

Remember, there are 2 types of disability. The worker benefit and the SSI benefit.

I would shave off the SSI. Congress today is thinking of using SSI to helps with the national highway program.

Right now SSI goes to disabled kids and to poor adults who have a history of little or no earnings. The SSI is capped at about $750 a month and the more income in the family or resources, the less you get. It is basically welfare.

Before you attack disability, why not ditch foreign aid to all those MFing countries who hate us and who do not do business with us fair and square. Like CHINA. You can shave corporate welfare and the tax breaks by rich companies. If you reduce disability, it is only fair to reduce other programs.

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Rakkasan July 23, 2015 at 12:51 pm

Your version of Ronnie Raygun’s …”a woman collecting welfare and driving a Cadillac. getting 22 different welfare checks, young “bucks” buying steaks with their welfare checks”? Thank you for sharing your next version of “those people stealing our hard-earned tax money…” Keep the fires burning, brother. BTW, yes, Reagan did say “young bucks”, but I’m sure he didn’t mean anything by it. Right?

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Bible Thumper July 22, 2015 at 10:46 pm

Think about it.
Medical advances has reduced disabilities.
Higher job safety standards have reduced disabilities.
Selective abortion has reduced children born with disabilities.
Changes in jobs have reduced the physical requirements of jobs.
The handicap access requirements of the ADA have increased the disabled abilities to work.

So I ask, why are more people on diability and not less?
Answer fraud and defining disability down. Many are receiving disability for treatable things like obesity, mental illness, or muscular skeletal problems that are easy to fake or cause.

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southmauldin July 22, 2015 at 10:58 pm

Or fibromyalgia, whatever the fuck that is.

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Sic Semper Tyrannis July 23, 2015 at 11:34 am

Nerves, Ask Tango.

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Jackie Chiles July 23, 2015 at 10:36 am

That and the government is unrepresented in the proceedings. The applicant has a lawyer, but there’s nobody there for the government. When you’ve got a one sided representation model, you’re going to get one sided results.

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Rakkasan July 23, 2015 at 12:52 pm

How about the judge during appeal, since most are denied initially.

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Rakkasan July 23, 2015 at 12:19 pm

Aging population, increased number of women in the workforce (number of women receiving DI almost equals men), population growth, raising Social Security retirement age. States with highest percent of population on DI also have lowest educational levels = fewer options for re-employment or retraining.

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Rakkasan July 23, 2015 at 12:28 pm

…and let’s not forget those men and women coming back from the wars. Yes, they can receive VA disability AND DI. And, if retired from the military, get their regular retirement check at the same time

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idcydm July 23, 2015 at 6:54 am

What happened to the SS lock box, must have gone the way of the gas tax lock box. Collect taxes for one thing and spend it on another. When you rob Peter to pay Paul you do run out of Peter;s money but Paul doesn’t care as long as the $18 trillion continues to grow.

The financial wizards in will spend tax dollars where it is most advantageous to their reelection and then borrow the rest. As Obama said it’s a failure of leadership and Americans deserve better.

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Bible Thumper July 23, 2015 at 8:48 am

Weekly Unemployment claims just came in at 255,000. That is a 42 year low. That’s Richard Nixon.

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Daniel Boome July 23, 2015 at 9:54 am

But, but….we would never run out if we didn’t give tax breaks to the wealthy. Higher taxes = higher revenue. Economics for dummies, right?

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opengovernmentup July 26, 2015 at 11:07 am

Let’s do math liberals. Hugh bloated trust funds -more people drawing daily-fewer jobs (meaning fewer paychecks) to tap for money= Smaller dwindling opps! gone fund.

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