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alp227

(31,959 posts)
Sat Apr 6, 2013, 03:52 AM Apr 2013

Two segments from Friday's Chris Hayes show debunking the NPR disability report

NPR's "Unfit for Work" special report that has been widely criticized here

First Chris Hayes segment criticizing the report

second segment

Guests in both segment from Friday's All In with Chris Hayes:
Michael Astrue, former Social Security commissioner (2007-2013)
Rebecca Vallas, attorney & disability advocate
Avik Roy, fellow of the conservative Manhattan Institute and author of Forbes.com blog "The Apothecary"

From a companion MSNBC.com article:

Recently, a handful of conservative commentators such as Fox News’ Chris Stirewalt and the National Review’s Jonah Goldberg have cited disability benefits for people who could be working if they hadn’t become accustomed to relying on checks from the government.

The source of this line of argument may be a recent Planet Money feature by NPR’s Chana Joffe-Walt. In “Unfit for Work: The startling rise of disability in America,” Joffe-Walt writes that “an entire disability-industrial complex” exists to “(p)ush more people onto disability,” whether they’re actually fit to work or not. As a result, “the number of Americans who are on disability has skyrocketed.”

Catherine Ruetschlin, one of the authors of the Demos report, described disability benefits as a “red herring.”

“It’s not a problem with the disability program,” she said. “It’s a problem of there not being adequate jobs.” She said that people would naturally rely more on their disability benefits or other sources of income when the only jobs available were ones they would be physically unable to perform.
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Two segments from Friday's Chris Hayes show debunking the NPR disability report (Original Post) alp227 Apr 2013 OP
The RepubliCONS have now moved on to trying to destroy our disability program. fasttense Apr 2013 #1
K&R unapatriciated Apr 2013 #2
 

fasttense

(17,301 posts)
1. The RepubliCONS have now moved on to trying to destroy our disability program.
Sat Apr 6, 2013, 07:21 AM
Apr 2013

They hate Social Security, they hate welfare, they hate food stamps, they hate lunch programs, they hate meals for impoverished elderly and now they are attacking disability. They wont be happy until Obama has wiped out any support for the poor and funnels all our tax dollars to welfare for the corporations and the uber rich like Mitt Romney.

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