Disability Benefits Fund Running Out of Money

There are now 11 million Americans collecting Disability Benefits, many fraudulently, tax free.   Disability Benefits should be for those people that are mentally or physically disabled; but somehow over time, people with a pain in the neck, bad back, or with high blood pressure, all of my ailments that have never stopped me from working, are collecting Disability Benefits by getting a Doctor to sign documents that the person can't work.   The reality is that millions of Americans on Disability are people age 50 - 65, who lost their jobs and can't find work in the Obama lousy economy.  They ran out of unemployment benefits and are too young to collect Social Security and Medicare.   So now with ObamaCare, they probably can get health insurance for little or nothing; but because they have other assets, they can't go on Welfare.   Instead, this is a way to get tax free money from the federal government.   They go on Disability and paint houses, or do other work on the side again tax free, under the table.   Everybody knows this scam. 

As a result of the millions of Americans collecting Disability fraudulently and or because of looser rules, up more than two million since Obama was first elected, the fund that covers Disability will be insufficient to provide full benefits in 2016.  Unless Congress acts, everyone that collects Disability Benefits, including those that should be on Disability, will see serious cuts to their benefits.   Today, 15 cents of every dollar we contribute to Social Security is carved out to pay Disability Benefits.  That means that money that should be going into the Social Security Trust Fund to pay pensions, when people retire are going to pay Disability Benefits, again to many fraudulently.   This Blogger has no problem providing assistance to the mentally or physically disabled because by act of God, there go all of us.  But, I do have a huge problem providing Disability Benefits to able bodied people that can work and or who are scamming the system. 

The way this shortfall has been remedied in the past is to take more money out of Social Security to pay Disability Benefits, so perhaps going from 15 cents out of every dollar we pay to 20 cents or more.  With 78 million Baby Boomers retiring in the next 20 years, this would only lead to the insolvency of Social Security sooner and or Means Testing to deny many of us that have paid into Social Security our entire working life some or all of our benefits.  That does not work for me.   Any politician, Republican or Socialist that votes to Means Test Social Security will never get my vote again.  It is unnecessary anyway because Social Security is taxed for married couples earning more than $44,000 a year.   We don't get to keep a big part of our Social Security anyway, so why bother with taking it all away. 

Instead Congress must stop all the fraud that is occurring by tightening up the rules.  There are millions of people on Disability fraudulently and or that can work, assuming they can find jobs.   We have to weed these people out of the system so that only those that are mentally or physically Disability may collect Disability.  Second, we have to stop robbing Social Security to pay this benefit.  Employees should be given the option of paying an extra percent of payroll to cover them in the event of Disability during their working life.   In essence, employees that choose to would be buying Disability insurance.   Those that choose to do so would be covered.  Those that don't choose to do so would be self insuring.  

We will see what Congress does.  Don't expect common sense to prevail.   Most likely both RINOS and Socialists will kick the can down the road by stealing more money out of Social Security contributions.  Everyone 50 years or younger better start saving for retirement because Social Security will not be there for you; just wait and see.