Category: Fuck the Poor

Rand Paul: Most people on disability don’t deserve it

~ susie ~ 3 Comments

Really, no one deserves anything if you’re not related to Rand Paul!

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is claiming that there is widespread fraud in the country’s disability system because most people who get benefits merely suffer from anxiety or sore backs.

At a meeting with legislative leaders in Manchester, NH on Wednesday, caught on tape by American Bridge, Paul told the room:

The thing is that all of these programs, there’s always somebody who’s deserving, everybody in this room knows somebody who’s gaming the system. I tell people that if you look like me and you hop out of your truck, you shouldn’t be getting a disability check. Over half the people on disability are either anxious or their back hurts. Join the club. Who doesn’t get up a little anxious for work every day and their back hurts? Everyone over 40 has a back pain.

The disability insurance program, which is part of Social Security, has come under scrutiny after two media reports last year that focused on rising enrollment and implied that it was at least partly due to fraud. But the reality is different: fraud in disability programs is estimated to amount to less than 1 percent and is extremely rare, as the agency’s watchdog has found. Its inaccurate payments rate is also less than 1 percent, compared to about 8 percent for Medicaid and Medicare.

The benefits are also very hard to come by. Fewer than four in ten applications are approved even after all stages of appeal. Medical evidence from multiple medical professionals is required in most cases to determine eligibility, which means showing that an applicant suffers from a “severe, medically determinable physical or mental impairment that is expected to last 12 months or result in death.” The severity of the disabilities of those who get benefits is underscored by the fact that one in five men and nearly one in six women die within five years of being approved.

Once on the rolls, payments are far from cushy: they average $1,130 a month, just over the federal poverty line for a single person, and usually replace less than half of someone’s previous earnings. Very few beneficiaries are able to work and supplement that income: less than 17 percent worked at some point during the year in 2007, but less than 3 percent of those people made more than $10,000 annually.

Temple prof: PA charter schools are a ripff

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

04_14_08 Susan DeJarnatt Faculty Beasley School of Law Lindback Award

Really good breakdown of the outright fraud that is the charter reform movement:

They collect as much money per student as the state’s brick-and-mortar charter schools. Despite a call from Governor Tom Corbett to do otherwise, the state still doesn’t ask how much it actually costs to educate students in cyber-charters to proficiency standards (nor does it, actually, for any of its schools).

Instead — as it does for brick-and-mortar charters — the state simply demands that school districts turn 70 percent to 80 percent of their normal per-pupil costs over to the cybers. (School districts are allowed to deduct certain expenses such as debt-service and transportation costs from their payments to charter schools.)

Those costs, of course, differ greatly from one school district to another. And since the state’s cyber charters can take students from any of Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts, they receive wildly different funding rates depending on a student’s home base.

If a regular-education student from Lower Merion school district attended a cyber-charter in 2011-2012, Lower Merion (which then had a per-pupil expenditure of $22,140.70) sent the cyber charter about $17,000.

If a regular-education student from the Philadelphia school district attended the same cyber-charter, Philadelphia (which then had a per-pupil expenditure of $12,351.74) sent the cyber charter about $8,500.

Same cyber school. Same cyber-education. Outrageously different price tag.

Tax forms

So how exactly are the state’s cyber charters using this money?

That’s the question Temple law professor Susan DeJarnatt set to answer in an articlerecently published in Urban Lawyer.

Parsing the tax documents for the 12 cyber charters for which information was available, she found that cyber charters carry large surpluses and spend what she considered a disproportionate amount of Pennsylvania tax dollars on advertising, travel expenses and contracts with outside management and service providers.

In her analysis, DeJarnatt breaks down cyber-charters into two categories.

Four of the twelve cyber charters were set up by the regional consortiums of public school districts called Intermediate Units (IUs). These are: 21st Century, Central PA Digital Learning Foundation, PA Learners Online Regional Cyber Charter, and SusQ-Cyber Charter.

The remaining “independent” cybers, DeJarnatt writes, “have no direct connection to any public school district.” She calls five of these “mega-cybers” because they “enroll the largest number of students and tend to employ outside managers.” She counts as “mega-cybers”: Agora Cyber, Commonwealth Connections Academy, PA Cyber, PA Leadership Charter, and PA Virtual.

These schools, she writes, “tend to carry significant surpluses and have accumulated significant assets.”

And this useful tidbit was in the comments:

One important omitted fact is that current PA Budget Secretary Charles Zogby, was the Secretary of Education under Governor Schweiker. While serving in that office, he was a key figure in setting the “generous” funding formula for cyber charters. Within a few short months after that legislation was passed, Zogby left through the revolving door to become a Vice President at K12, the nation’s largest operator of cyber charters. Since returning to “public” service Zogby has been a key architect of the Corbett administration’s budgets which have drastically reduced the funding of public education, to the obvious competitive disadvantage of regular public schools, which maintain very disadvantageous fixed cost structures when compared with cyber charters.

Groundhog day

~ susie ~ 7 Comments

Rep. Tom Price

We not only have to fight these bozos, we have to keep Obama from cutting a deal with them:

The new House Budget Committee chairman hinted Monday that he had big plans for Social Security reform in the next two years, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

A week after the House voted on a rule that critics say could force a manufactured crisis in the disability program in late 2016, a potential leverage point for Republicans aiming for changes, Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) told a conservative audience that he wanted his committee to tackle Social Security.

“What I’m hopeful is what the Budget Committee will be able do is to is begin to normalize the discussion and debate about Social Security. This is a program that right now on its current course will not be able to provide 75 or 80 percent of the benefits that individuals have paid into in a relatively short period of time,” he said at a Heritage Action for America event in Washington, D.C., according to AJC. “That’s not a responsible position to say, ‘You don’t need to do anything to do it.’”

Price, whose predecessor Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) never put forward major reform proposals in his otherwise ambitious budgets, offered means-testing and increasing the eligibility age as possibilities. He also hinted at privatizing Social Security.

My head hurts

~ susie ~ 4 Comments

e Filing Taxes History

I just got off the phone with the IRS, who is threatening to seize my bank accounts. They want me to make $185 a month installment payment on what I owe, and as a condition, to also make a $287 per quarter payment of estimated taxes.

This is just incomprehensible to me. I suppose I’m going to have to dig up a CPA who will fix this for me, and I have no idea how to pay for that.

It’s not easy being poor in America.

Pope Frank sticks up for the poor again

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

CHARLIE HEBDO

And takes another swipe at capitalism:

Pope Francis strongly defends his repeated criticisms of the global market economy in a new interview released Sunday, rebutting those who accuse him of “pauperism” by saying he is only repeating Jesus’ message of caring for the poor.

“Jesus affirms that you cannot serve two masters, God and wealth,” Francis states in the interview, bluntly asking: “Is it pauperism?”

“Jesus tells us that it is the ‘protocol’ on the basis of which we will be judged, it is what we read in Chapter 25 of Matthew: I had hunger, I had thirst, I was in prison, I was sick, I was naked and you helped me: dressed me, visited me, you took care of me,” the pontiff continues.

“This is the touchstone,” he states, asking again: “Is it pauperism? No, it is the Gospel.”

“The Gospel message is a message open to all,” the pope continues. “The Gospel does not condemn the rich but idolatry of wealth, that idolatry that renders [us] insensitive to the cries of the poor.”

And then he said that leaders have to put the common good first:

We cannot wait more to resolve the structural causes of poverty, to heal our society from a disease that can only lead to new crises. Markets and financial speculation cannot enjoy absolute autonomy.

Without a solution to the problems of the poor we cannot resolve the problems of the world. They serve programs, mechanisms and processes oriented to a better allocation of resources, creation of work, [and] integral promotion of those who are excluded.

Ivan Klima covers the NFL playoffs

~ odd man out ~ 1 Comment

klima

Swamp Rabbit and I were hungry, so we took a two-day job — strictly commission, unfortunately — peddling magical electricity in a suburban mall. There were flat-screen TVs and football fans all over the place. We caught some of the New England Patriots-Baltimore Ravens playoff game as we worked. The rabbit had bet on the Patriots to win by seven points, but they only won by four, so he lost his bet and was in no mood to join the Patriots fans as they cheered.

But the fans quickly shut up and went back to gawking at the shiny toys in the mall. Tom Brady is a great QB, I told the rabbit, but who really cares about the Patriots where we live, in Philadelphia Eagles country? In fact, who cares about the Eagles? They’re done. Show me the next distraction, please.

“In the end, it’s all garbage,” I added.

No one was looking to consume magical electricity, so I pulled from my backpack a dog-eared copy of Czech novelist Ivan Klima’s Love and Garbage and read to the rabbit a relevant passage about consumers:

They fill the streets, the squares, the stadiums and the department stores. When they burst into cheers over a winning goal, a successful pop song or a revolution, it seems as if that roar would go on forever, but it is followed at once by the deathly silence of emptiness and oblivion.

“Don’t give me no high-falutin’ lectures, I ain’t in the mood,” the rabbit replied. “I just lost fifty bucks on them freakin’ Patriots. Now I gotta stand here and watch these here consumers consume all them toys I can’t afford.”

I told him all is good, the toys won’t make the consumers any happier than he is, not for more than a few minutes. “What these people need, they can’t buy at the mall,” I said.

I added. “You’re just looking to fill the void inside you where your soul should be.”

“You got that right, Odd Man. Any liquor stores in this dump?”

We folded up our table and left the mall, still hungry. On the way back to the swamp I stole some wieners at the SuperFridge and a liter of Wild Turkey at Tinicum Beer & Spirits.

“Here you go, rabbit,” I said, handing him the Wild Turkey back at the shack. “But this garbage won’t fill the void.”

He guzzled straight from the bottle and said, “Maybe not, but at least it’ll stop the shakes.”

Regarding Rushdie and the limits of satire

~ odd man out

Salman Rushdie has issued an eloquent denunciation of the fanatics who murdered eleven in Paris in the name of their god:

I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the art of satire, which has always been a force for liberty and against tyranny, dishonesty and stupidity. ‘Respect for religion’ has become a code phrase meaning ‘fear of religion.’ Religions, like all other ideas, deserve criticism, satire, and, yes, our fearless disrespect.

I showed Rushdie’s statement to my friend Swamp Rabbit and said, “That pretty much sums it up, don’t you think?”

“Almost,” the rabbit said. “But this story ain’t about old-school religion — Muslims and Christians and whatnot. It’s about somethin’ bigger.”

We talked it out. The rabbit’s point was that the murderers in Paris are political ideologues more than they are religious fanatics. Their religious convictions, if they have any, are bound up in their socioeconomic grievances. They and their fellow fanatics want to punish the West — not so much for disrespecting Muhammad as for disrespecting them. They profess to be killing on the behalf of the powerless. Religion isn’t really the primary issue in this story, any more than it was in Northern Ireland during the time of the troubles.

The rabbit noted that old-school religions have run out of steam in the West, except among Bible-thumping Republicans in red-state America. That the dominant religion in the modern secular West is free-market capitalism. That hardcore capitalism continues to widen the gulf between the world’s haves and have-nots, setting the stage for a large-scale backlash on the part of the have-nots.

“Yes, but at least we Westerners are free to criticize, satirize and disrespect capitalism and its high priests,” I said. “Capitalist fanatics don’t shoot people for making fun of the Koch brothers or Wall Street or ExxonMobil.”

The rabbit opened the door of my shack, letting in the cold air. “Wake up, Odd Man,” he said. “Capitalists run the government. They own the TV and newspapers and all that. They ain’t gotta shoot no critics. They just drown ’em out with propaganda and use the propaganda to start wars against the have-nots.”

“They’ve done a good job of that,” I conceded. “But I think you underestimate the power of satire.”

Maybe so,” he said. “But not as much as you underestimate the power of money.”

Outlaw bikers with badges and benefits, aka NYPD

~ odd man out ~ 2 Comments

swamp rabbit

Is it possible to be paranoid and arrogant as hell at the same time? Sure it is, if you’re a cop.

Swamp Rabbit asked me how I could say such a thing. I told him to check out the NYPD goons who turned their backs to dis New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio at the funerals of their two slain comrades. As if the mayor somehow inspired the loony who killed the cops. As if he was expressing solidarity with cop killers when he addressed the concerns of people who feel victimized by the city employees who’ve sworn to protect them.

The rabbit tossed some twigs into the wood stove and said, “Git a grip, Odd Man. Screamin’ at me ain’t gonna stop cops from killin’ guys who sell loosies, or bring back the kid with the toy gun who got blasted by some Barney Fife in a playground.”

I slammed the wood stove door and said, “I know that, you stupid rodent. All I’m saying is it shouldn’t surprise anybody when cops turn their backs. That’s what most cops do.”

The rabbit took a swig of Wild Turkey and tried to pass the bottle to me. I shook him off. He said, “I still don’t get your drift, Odd Man.”

“Well, get this. You ever call the cops when there’s a domestic dispute? When your bike gets stolen or your car window smashed? When somebody breaks into your shack and walks off with your flat-screen? When some nut job down the block threatens to stab your first-born? Cops take two hours to show up. Then they laugh at you. Then they threaten to lock you up if you make a fuss. Then they turn their backs and walk.”

He accused me of exaggerating. “You’re just talkin’ about that rotten neighborhood in Philly where you grew up. Most people like havin’ a police department.”

I threw an empty can of black-eyed peas at him. “Cops aren’t a department, they’re a tribe. They’re like outlaw motorcycle gangs. They don’t rat on their brothers. They watch out for each other. They think in terms of us versus them. They hurt people who mess with them. Half the time, they lock up the wrong people. They exist outside the law.”

“You make it sound like all cops are bad guys,” the rabbit said. “That’s like sayin’ all bus drivers is bad.”

“You’re right, rabbit, there’s good and bad in all professions. But bus drivers can’t shoot people or strangle them just for looking at them funny.”

“Them’s just the bad apples,” the rabbit insisted. “Most cops ain’t like outlaw bikers.”

“Right again,” I said. “Cops wear badges and get great benefits and pensions and can retire before their hair turns gray. Bikers don’t get benefits.”

I would have kept my rant going, but the rabbit turned his back on me and hopped out to the swamp.

Too frail to work, too poor to retire

~ susie ~ 5 Comments

I love this rant from Athenae over at First Draft:

This is where we’re at, what we’re doing: We give you a deal, and you take it, because … why the fuck wouldn’t you? You worked hard for these institutions all your damn life. You worked hard for them because they promised to take care of you and up until recently, they mostly did.

(And I know it’s like arguing with a stuffed animal, but who the fuck is asking for MORE GOVERNMENT here? Let’s start asking for MORE CORPORATION, as in do for your employees what you promised them you would do, you selfish fucks.)

I don’t understand what we get as a society out of creating thousands and thousands of desperately elderly people. My grandfather’s pension took care of my grandfather until he died and afterward, that pension kept my grandmother in their home. Which she and her children could afford to keep up, thus saving the neighborhood from blight, while she shopped at the local grocery store and bakery, got her local paper delivered, and paid local taxes which fixed the roads and schools and kept the streetlights on.

What would society have gained if those two people had been kicked out of their home? What does society get out of telling people like them too bad, so sad, know how we promised you a pension well fuck you, Shadow President Paul Ryan says we can’t afford that anymore and every Democrat within shouting distance is afraid Chuck Todd will call them mean, plus the company has to think of the shareholders and you’re just a guy who ruined your knees and eyes and hearing making money for those shareholders so it’s not like we owe you jack shit?

You know what we get? Starved schools and unfilled potholes and the smallness and meanness that comes from fear, ordinary animal fear that we have for us and ours won’t be enough, that we need to build walls around ourselves and man the parapets with guns, fence out the Other and glare at those within.

Right the fuck on.
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