The video above is extremely disturbing and, as I pointed out on the show yesterday, it becomes angering when you realize this loser is living on your dime. He runs a website, builds furniture, drives himself all over town...but he’s too “disabled” to work even as a mall security guard in a parking garage cubby.
The real question is how did this guy ever get on SSI in the first place? And, sadly, he’s not alone. The number of “disabled” people applying for SSI has surged, hurting Social Security’s finances and—let’s face it—in many cases screwing the taxpayer.
This breakdown is one reason why Social Security Disability Insurance—one of the federal government's two disability programs—is under severe financial strain. It paid a record $124 billion in benefits in 2010 and is on track to become the first major entitlement program to go bust. Government officials said last week it is expected to run out of money in 2018.
But remember: All of these cases of disability scams have to go before a judge. Nobody gets to simply declare themselves eligible for a month check. It starts with judges, like MA judge Francis C. Newton, Jr.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the average applicant for SSI benefits has less than a 60% chance of getting the benefit requested. Not bad, but it’s nothing compared to Judge Newton, who grants his applicants pocketsful of your money 98 percent of the time!
He’s not alone. Many MA judges have an 80 percent or higher record of granting SSI awards. Now it could be that we’re just unusually injury-prone here in MA, or that our citizens are so honest they would never, ever apply for SSI unless they really needed it.
Or it could be that Judge Newton is like some of his fellow judges in the system:
Mr. Daugherty, 75 years old, processes more cases than all but three judges in the U.S. He has a wry view of his less-generous peers. “Some of these judges act like it’s their own damn money we’re giving away,” Mr. Daugherty told a fellow Huntington judge, Algernon Tinsley, who worked in the same office until last year, Mr. Tinsley recalled.
"The truth is something [Warren] probably prefers not to confront. Harvard doesn’t come calling just because you’re a smart lawyer and a terrific teacher — not with Warren’s modest, Oklahoma upbringing and non-Ivy League education. She is not your typical Harvard professor. At a certain point, when the law school was under pressure to promote diversity, she represented a three-fer: a great lawyer with a national profile, a woman, and a minority, at least by virtue of family lore. "
-- Joan Vennochi
