How are people supposed to live on $623 a month?

[Cleita]

This is what SSI pays people who are down on their luck or unable to hold down jobs because of disabilities or handicaps. I live on $2,000 a month and I find it a struggle. Between Medical insurance and prescription drug co-pays I pay $500 into medical alone and I have Medicare. So the rest is rent, car payments, utilities, other insurances, gas, food and clothing. I am not homeless, but many who get SSI are homeless. It's a choice between rent or food. If the SS office raised the payments to $2,000 there is a good possibility that most of todays' homeless would be able to find adequate rentals to get them off the street. So how can we get Congress to address this issue? Since impeachment and ending the war is off the table, can we get them to put this on the table?

[MonkeyFunk]

1. They're not

it's Supplemental Security Income. It's meant to supplement some other income.

Not defending it... just stating what it is.

[Cleita]

3. No, it's not.

It's $623 period. If you get other income they dock that off the SSI. So you are always getting $623 a month, unless you make more and you lose it altogether.

[MonkeyFunk]

8. That's not how I understand it

according to the sourced notes on wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supplemental_Security_Income), a person can earn $750/month and still get SSI.

Again, I'm not defending the limit - it's ridiculous. But the program wasn't designed for people to live off it. We should change that.

[Breeze54]

13. What does it say about SSDI and SSI?

There's a difference.

And no matter how you slice it, it's a paltry sum.

Pray you never have to be on it.

[MonkeyFunk]

14. I have never disagreed that it's a paltry sum

and I agree, it should be greatly increased.

[Cleita]

30. Have the rules changed?

Years ago I helped a neighbor get on SSI, who looked like he might become homeless, because he was too sick to go to work anymore. Then I found out he was eligible for a small pension from the Veterans of Foreign Wars. I applied for the pension, he got it but then Social Security cut his SSI payment by that amount, so he still got the same money. There was nothing supplemental about it. Back then since his rent was only $150 a month, he was able to squeak by on it and he died two years later. But SSI was about $600 a month and this was around 1980 so they haven't adjusted this amount for inflation in all those years.

[Kajsa]

39. With SSI, a portion of the wages earned

in that pay period are deducted off the benefits two months later.
The first $80. is waived.

Example:

Wages ( part time work) $400.00
Waived - 80.00
-----------
Income that is counted $320.00
1/2 is deducted -160.00
-----------

Wages that are deducted $160.00


The higher the wages, the higher the deduction.

[Maraya1969]

50. The truth is yes you can make an extra $750 and still stay on SSD

But SSD is not SSI. You can have a million dollars in the bank and still collect SSD. The problem with working is you always fear they will take your benefit away, (along with the medical insurance) by claiming that you are now not disabled since you are working.

Everyone I know on SSI was very poor and living in tiny rent subsidized apartments. If they got extra money and the government found out they would be kicked off. Even if a relative pays for your electric bill that is include in the amount of money you have. And if someone gives you money that is included also. It is not included if it is a "loan".

[Lucinda]

56. Not true. You can retain medicaid benefits...but you dont receive money

I was just granted disability last spring. $704.00 buck a month. Which makes me inelliglble for SSI assistance - except for medicaid. I make too much at $704.

[JuniperLea]

65. They can still get SSI...

But the amount is decreased by the amount earned. In other words, $750 is the cap because so few people get over $750 in SSI.

The program WAS designed for people to live off... the story changed as more and more people started making claims. When my 99.75 year-old great-grandmother first started contributing to the system, she was told this was her retirement savings and it was guaranteed to be what she needed.

[BattyDem]

52. That's correct. I know someone who is on SSI ...

if he gets any other income, it gets docked off the SSI. He can't have more than $2000 in a bank account. That $2000 is allowed only because they consider that the minimum amount needed for burial expenses if you die. If he had any assets such as property, a car, a life insurance policy that could be cashed in prior to death or any other potential source of income, it would affect the amount of his SSI and/or his eligibility. He gets Medicaid and food stamps, but if his food stamp allowance is raised, the monthly SSI is lowered (and vice versa). Basically, he has to remain in poverty to get any kind of help.

This person lives with relatives, so his check is only about $500 a month because he is not directly responsible for the mortgage payments, utility bills, etc. He DOES give his relatives some money each month to help with expenses, but he is not supposed to accept any food or money from them. So ... if his $100 food stamp allowance isn't enough, he can either use what's left of his SSI money to buy more groceries or starve. His relatives have financial problems of their own, which is the reason why he gives them some money each month. He was told by the Social Security office that if he didn't give them any money but continued to live there, both his SSI and food stamp allowance would be lowered. The reality is that he's being penalized because he has relatives willing to help him. If he was homeless and alone, he would get more money and food stamps!

There is something very wrong with our country! :mad:

NOTE: SSI is different than SSDI. SSDI is insurance that you paid for when you worked. SSI is what you get when you haven't worked (or couldn't work) and never paid taxes into the system.

[bobbolink]

69. You're absolutely right, Cleita! It's such a bummer that so many don't know even the basics of

this mess.

It's very discouraging, but thank you so much for educating people!!

[halobeam]

60. If you become disabled and haven't worked enough quarters,

you are ineligible for SSDI, therefore you receive SSI. The qualifications of SSDI are diff. than SSI. SSI can be affected if there is other income, SSDI can't. If you are single, disabled and haven't worked enough quarters, you only get SSI. You can't live off of that even uncomfortably. The amount you get in SSI is not as much as if you worked enough quarters and got SSDI. It is lower (b/c you haven't worked the min. quarters).

SSDI is horrible too, but a little bit better. I know people on both, one gets 575/mth and the other, (ssdi) gets 1435./mth. Both permanent disabilities that are similar, too.

To add: if you get child support, both now include that as family income and adjust accordingly, (downward) needless to say. So the child support then goes to the utilities, and the hell w/ the shoes they might need. Nice, huh?

Glad the system is there, but it needs major adjustments that are more willing to accept the reality of cost of living.

[Ron Green]

2. C'mon, you'd have to replace slavery and addiction as the organizing principles of society...

replace them with compassion or some cockamamie thing like that.

What're you thinking?

[Cleita]

5. I have been going through a learning process helping a

homeless woman. I never realized before just how awful it is to be homeless until I started seeing it through her eyes. It batters your body, your mind and your soul. Giving them just enough money to eat isn't enough.

[zippy890]

33. once she's receiving SSI she's be eligible

for Federal housing subsidy programs and depending on the state, state housing programs as well.

have her get on waiting lists for Public & Section 8 housing assitance through any local housing agencies in her area.

if she has been in a shelter or other facility that can document her homelessness that should help herget a 'priority' on the waiting list.

many shelters have houisng advocates that can help applicants through the paperwork & beauracracies of the application process.

the only way people on SSI can make it is:
1)living with relatives (which is not an option for many people 2) housing subsidy programs where they pay @30% of their monthly income for rent.

good luck to you in you efforts to help her.

[bobbolink]

70. You DO know, I hope, that many Section 8 apartments no longer even have waiting lists?

And, how are people supposed to make it through the 2 or 3 or 4 years of a waiting list?

You also know, I'm sure, that if you aren't paying rent, your SSI is docked???

Which then follows, as I'm sure you must know, that when you DO get an apartment after 3 or 4 years, you don't get enough SSI to pay the rent, deposit, etc.?

You know that, right?

[Selatius]

4. Unfortunately, the war will continue to eat up the budget. We're looking at 1 trillion dollars eaten

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This is, I repeat, the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. <...> Is there no other way the world may live?

-- Dwight D. Eisenhower, A speech given to the American Society of Newspaper Editors (1953-04-16)

[Cleita]

6. I never really appreciated Ike until now although he was

President when I was in high school, but back then even the poor had homes to go to.

[grasswire]

7. on the day when the kids health care was denied....

....the talking heads on the right kept screaming on news shows about how the U.S. can't possibly afford this "entitlement" to socialized medicine. Pat Buchanan was especially shrill. We can't afford it! Who pays for this insurance for kids? We can't afford it!!

And yet we can afford to occupy a sovereign nation in an endless imperial war of aggression. No one seemed to see the pathetic irony.

[Lasher]

15. We can afford lots of things; it's a matter of priorities.

Republicans like wars and rich people. We like children.

[Lasher]

21. Does Buchanan know SCHIP would be funded with a tobacco tax increase?

What's not to afford? Unlike Pat's pals the neocons and neoliberals, Democrats provide ways to pay for bills they pass.

[grasswire]

48. yeah, Buchanan said the working stiff...

...and the minorities will be the ones paying the cigarette tax. He said that low class people will pay for the socialized health care for children and it isn't fair to them.

[Cleita]

23. Every time I hear RW nutjobs like Pat Buchanan mouth off about

these things I want to bust up my TV. I became a liberal because I realized during the Vietnam war that our treasury was just a candy store for big business interests and those interests were fueled by war. Yes, we can take care of our own, quite nicely if taxpayers money is used to take care of it's citizens instead of being used to blow up other nations.

[Hydra]

58. If we didn't toss money out the window for stupid wars

the money invested in giving people oppotunities would filter back to all of us- teachers, farmers, craftsmen, repairpeople, etc.

[robinlynne]

49. wow. Someone should read that to congress when they discuss war funding bills.

[bobbolink]

72. So, is that an excuse?

[SeattleGirl]

9. A lot of the clients I have do. Not on SSI or SSDI, but on timeloss

payments from Labor and Industries. They have lost their vehicles, their homes, their savings, everything. It's really sad.

[KT2000]

11. WA State L&I

and probably most states, is criminal in the way they treat people.

Did you see the KING 5 story about the McKinsey and Company plan for insurance companies to pay fewer claims? I think L&I subscribes to their tactics. www.king5.com

[SeattleGirl]

12. Actually, Washington is better than a lot of other states, though I agree

that injured workers aren't treated as well as they could be.

Some states don't offer retraining at all, if a person isn't able to return to anything they used to do. It's like, "Oops, sorry. Don't let the door hitcha where the good lord splitcha." And that's it.

At least here, there are some options, though I agree the system could be better.

[KT2000]

10. I truly believe

the system wants people in this situation to kill themselves.
A woman I know who lived in her car was eventually moved into assisted living on welfare. The system makes sure people are constantly humiliated and they have to spend their lives documenting everything for the welfare office - whatever they can think of to harrass the person, no matter how sick the person is.
She could no longer afford the medicines that made her feel better after she got o welfare.

She lived in her car to avoid this loss of autonomy and found dignity in suicide. Sometimes that is the way it works and I believe it is on purpose.

[Cleita]

24. This is so true.

I've been trying to help a homeless woman who is at the end of her rope and was threatening to kill herself because she couldn't cope anymore with the constant humiliation and bureaucratic BS. I've been trying to help her with this, but mainly she needs a decent place to live and some money to meet necessities without having to jump through hoops to get desperately needed funds without all the strings attached. Also, the services offered are usually inadequate after all the humiliation and negotiating you have to go through. Also, she is obviously sick from years of exposure. It's not a pretty place to be.

[zippy890]

37. see post 33

your wonderful to be trying to help her.

:loveya:

[knitter4democracy]

26. I think you're right.

The indignities aren't just in Oliver Twist and the debtor's prisons of the 1800s. They're in all of these programs, since so many are so damn scared that a penny might not be spent right. They're more worried about the penny than the billions in no-bid contracts.

[bobbolink]

73. "the system wants people in this situation to kill themselves."

You're so right! Yet, if we dare to speak that, then we are castigated.

There is so much ignorance and denial, and that includes among liberals!

Thank you so much for understanding the reality of the situation!

:hug:

[lancer78]

16. People on SSI...

get more then $643 per month. They get subsidized housing. They get free legal representation. If they con someone (like myself) out of thousands of dollars, there is no way for me to get my money back. I'm sorry, I know a few good people on SSI but a lot of bad apples that say they are disabled yet carry 150 lbs. deer through the woods just make my blood boil.

[cutlassmama]

17. My adult son gets $603/mo in SSI.

He has to live with me because there is a 3 year waiting list for housing. Even if he could get housing, it would be too dangerous to leave him in those neighborhoods with his mental level. He'd probably be killed within a day's time. He can't carry a deer. He can bathe and eat, but only when prompted. He doesn't remember things so he'd be likely to burn his living quarters down from forgetting to turn off the stove or something like that. I wasn't aware he could get free legal representation. Who would that be through? He made need that.

[Maraya1969]

51. I think they are talking about legal aid which is the same as 'if you cannot

afford an attorney one will be given to you" (something like that)

[bobbolink]

75. Legal Aid hardly does anything anymore.

It's really too bad that so many people don't understand the "resources" they are so sure are there, are AWOL.

[Rocinante]

20. You got conned?

How did "they" con you out of thousands of dollars? Please educate me.

[Richard Steele]

22. Not to mention those Cadillac-driving welfare queens! Tell us about them again, won't you please?

[Raejeanowl]

85. I've Never Seen One Of Those

But I did see a very expensively dressed, furred and bejeweled woman from a Lincoln full of the same waiting in view outside the window, come into my supermarket years ago and pay for a purchase with food stamps. Not the only unlikely presenter I've ever noticed, but certainly the most memorable.

[Cleita]

25. You know lots of them?

I doubt that. Yes, occasionally there are those who game the system, but most people on those programs desperately need them. Just because you can't see the disability doesn't mean it doesn't exist. A man who carries a deer through the forest could be mentally dysfunctional and unable to hold down a job. The social workers know what they are doing when they evaluate these people.

[TheUniverse]

27. Someone can carry a 150 pound deer...

And still be severely disabled mentally.

[zippy890]

35. please don't generalize about SSI recipients

the federal Social Security disability program is one the best things left
about our federal government.

It a program that consistently provides needed assistance to people. I am familiar with the process the SSA uses to determine eligibility and it is a good & competent system.

Yes many SSI recipients get housing assistance- they couldn't survive without it.

And yes, many of them are mentally or developmentally disabled so their disabilities may not be obvious.

[Ilsa]

36. They get subsidized housing if it is available. Sometimes there is a

long waiting list. The current list for housing for disabled young people is about ten years where I live. It is at least two years for other subsidized housing.

[bobbolink]

77. Many waiting lists have been shut down. Many times it's much more than 2 years waiting.

SSI people in need of housing are supposed to be air plants.

[Kajsa]

38. About all those freebies.

Housing- if they are fortunate enough to get on the Section 8 list,
they may qualify for HUD.
There is no safe housing around here that accepts HUD.

Legal Representation- they can get legal advice through Legal Aid.
If they need a lawyer, they must retain one on their own.
And yes, they must pay for it themselves.

[Forkboy]

44. Oh do tell us more.

:popcorn:

[grasswire]

53. did you know there's a five year wait for housing assistance?

[Stand and Fight]

59. So, what are you saying?

Are you saying that $643 a month is adequate for people to live on? Are you saying that strength equates to mental and emotional stability and sanity? Are you saying that disabilities can be viewed as easily as the clothes on one's back or the hair upon ones head?

If so, you're a real asshole who needs to wake up. If not, I apologize for my tone.

[Hydra]

63. You should try doing it

SSI gave me and my ward the middle finger- wait 15 more months for a hearing with a ALJ for her.

Legal help is only if you've been charged with a crime in my state- can't use it to get workman's comp to pay for her toxic exposure on the job.

I wish I could get a deer for us...but working 40 hours and then fighting the state and the feds for every penny we need to stay in housing is like having another full time job.

Subsidized housing? Waiting list. LONG waiting list. Emergency housing? Waiting list almost as long.

I wish to hell we'd slipped through the cracks you've mentioned- SSI owes her over $70,000.

[NMMNG]

68. Ronnie, is that you?

I'll be sure to let my profoundly disabled clients know you're thinking about them. Of course they won't know :wtf: I'm talking about because they have mental ages approximating those of toddlers. But you just go on thinking they're bad apples sucking the system dry with their huge SSI checks they don't really deserve. :eyes:

[bobbolink]

74. And, this is your "liberal" assessment?

So, you seem to be agreeing with a post above that people on SSI should just kill themselves.

I really feel sorry for you and your shriveled heart.

You're more disabled than the people you disdain.

[cutlassmama]

18. My son gets Medicare and Medicaid, so between the two

his office visits are free at the doctor and his prescriptions are $1.00 a piece. He can't drive because his neurologist won't release him to drive, so no car payments/insurance. Rent and food are on me, but if he lived on his own he could get Section 8 housing and food stamps. There are also a few group homes that the state subsidizes for disabled people. Sure, $2,000 is enough to barely squeak by...depending on where you live...I doubt it is enough in New York or California. $623.00, no there is no way for one person to live on that. Sick people have to find family or friends to live off of or be homeless. I sincerely believe the government wants ill people to off themselves so they don't have to pay further benefits for them. I'd love to see any one of them try to live on $623 a month!

[Disturbed]

19. The RWing does not believe in any Social Programs.

That goes for those Libertarians, as well. Ron Paul is a Libertarian & he thinks that SS should be abolished. He doesn't believe the Natl. Govt. should sponsor any programs, period. Poor people are viewed with disdain. If it was legal to shoot them, the Repugs would hire people to do so.

[Cookie wookie]

57. Isn't that what they did in New Orleans already.

[Cleita]

28. I live in California and I squeak by but it's getting harder and harder

every year. If the bottom drops out of the economy and I'm fearful it will, inflation will wipe my savings out and I won't be able to survive. Then I will be out on the streets too. It's a reality I live with every day.

[SoCalDem]

29. "Those people" are supposed to move in with friends & family

My best friend ended up taking in her handicapped brother (he was severely beaten as a teenager and has never been able to manage on his own..he's 65)..

After their mother died, he had nowhere to go, and she took him in. She essentially became his "mom".. She's the youngest of EIGHT children, yet she is the one who cares for Harold and the only one who cares about and visits the oldest brother who's in a nursing home (he was hit by a car while riding his bike, and has a brain injury)..

Families and friends are the ones who usually pick up the slack, because the stipen that ill and injured people get is never enough to actually live on :cry:

[Cleita]

31. That's fine if you have friends and family. Also, families need

help too. They are already burdened with raising children. Then to take on a disabled relative or elderly relative is a back breaking task for them. Many homeless have become weird living on the streets and often alienate friends and family. They really need enough to live on so they can regain their dignity and get into a better place mentally as well as physically.

[SoCalDem]

32. That's how Harold ended up in my friend's home..

After his Mom died, he DID end up on the streets and eventually ended up living in a guy's back yard in a tiny camper with no electricity or facilities.. He turned over his entire check to the guy, and sometimes didn;t even have food..

My friend invited him to her house for dinner, and commented that he smelled and needed a good bath.. that's when he started crying and told her he had no running water.. they packed his stuff up that night and moved him in..:)

[bobbolink]

78. "Many homeless have become weird living on the streets "

I beg your pardon.

:rofl:

[Stand and Fight]

61. I was a foster child growing up...

I come from a very poor and very small family. Only in the last several years have I reunited with my family.

I moved to northern California after high school on a fool quest for love. Looked and looked for a job. Could not find one no matter how hard I tried. Ended up homeless. I didn't have friends or family to help me. Luckily I was young and I made the tough decision to join the Army or starve -- I was a pacifist and very independent minded. Some people have neither the luxury of youth or the strength of body to do what I did. It was an awful choice to have to make, but bare in mind that many people don't have family or friends. They've only themselves.

[Kajsa]

34. I'm all for it.

My son, 23, still lives at home because his SSI/SSDI benefits are
not enough to pay the rent on an apartment in SoCal.

HUD would be the only option, but it's not since no safe housing
exists that accepts it in this area.

The cap on assets to receive SSI/SSDI is still $2,000. total.
That everything, money on hand, money expected, savings, etc.

That figure hasn't changed in over 15 years, yet rents/mortgages in this area
have quadrupled.

It's high time benefits reflected real world economics and adjusted
with the rate of inflation.

Yes, how can we get Congress to address this?

Thanks for posting this.
;-)

[Wiley50]

40. Cleita, I am one of those people living on SSI Disability

I installed carpet for a living for 30 years and have severe degenerative disk disease (10 disks) with chronic progressive nerve damage (I haven't had feeling in my toes for years and am now losing feeling in my hands). Although I paid my taxes and FICA for most of my career and have built up enough credits to draw Social Security at 62 (I am 52 now)
my disability gradually came on me over a period of 10 years manifesting in my being able to turn out less and less work (carpet layers work sub-contract labor by the square yard)and during the last five years I was barely able to keep my truck on the road and a roof over my head, much less pay the taxes and FICA that was due on that money. For disability, you lose coverage for SSDI if you haven't paid in for 5 years (no matter how much you have paid in in the past) and therefore I am only eligible for SSI $623/mo.

They fought me for 3 and a half years when even their own doctor said I was disabled and I only got it when their time ran out and I was granted a hearing by a federal judge who, as soon as my file hit his desk, waived the hearing and granted my claim. this was in 2005. I received back pay since my filing date in a lump sum and, after paying my lawyer a huge chunk of it, had enough to purchase a 1972 model 28 foot sailboat on Ebay which I now call home. For this reason my rent is only $200/mo which helps a lot in making ends meet.

Some states, such as California, pay a state supplimental on top of SSI. My state, Tennessee, does not. My state also, has section 8 housing so scarce that only a few single mothers ever make it off of the waiting list into housing, a single man would have no chance.

Transportation is also a problem as there is no public transportation at all where I live and I must travel 75 miles each way, twice a month to see my doctors. I have an 87 dodge station wagon that I inherited from my mother when she died and it is always breaking down. It is at this point where $623/mo becomes completely inadequate. As my check is totally consumed by rent, food and gas, money must be raised to fix the car. This is where people like me turn to Payday Advance loans. A radiator, a power steering pump and a front brake job were paid for this year this way. Now see what that does to my 623/mo.

The first of every month I have to go pay the payday advance store $500 for the checks I wrote them the previous month. So, on the spot, I have to write another check for $300 plus a $30 fee. About mid month I have to write another one for $140 plus $30 fee. So that is how it goes, with them raking $60 off of me every month all because I had to keep my car running in order to get to my doctor's appointments.

Last year, the same situation occured except, instead of car repair, it was dental work that my Medicaid does not cover. I finally got out from under that when, last Christmas, Libraliz1973 and some other folks here at DU took up a collection for myself and several others. I am still in awe of the generousity that I was shown. And it was great to be out of hock to the loan sharks for a good six months. This time, I have no idea how I will ever get it paid off.

I have a sister who is able to send me $50 or $100 every fewq months or so, but otherwise I am pretty much on my own. I don't get food stamps as I would only qualify for $20/mo or so and I've found that it's best to not have any dealings with state human services anyway. Tennessee does not offer much in the way of programs to help someone like me. What little resources they have are spent trying to help single mothers with small children. And they really should come first.

The problem with the system is that it has only been adjusted 1 or 2 percent a year for inflation when actual inflation has run 10% or more. This has been happening for many many years. The way that they figure inflation excludes housing, food and fuel.

Thanks for your interest Cleita, but I don't expect that people like me will be getting much help from congress. They can't even get a children's healthcare bill through.

[Cleita]

41. There are so many stories like yours even here on DU.

Fortunately, you figured out a way to have a place to live, but not everyone can do that. This Congress and this presidency won't do anything either I believe. Boy it's time to do some housecleaning both in Congress and in the White House. I just don't know how we are going to go about it.

[Wiley50]

42. Sometimes I think that the only way change will come

is through a complete economic collapse and also a collapse of empire.

When their greed and lust of power completely blows up in their faces.

Then a new sociology will rise from the ashes

[Cleita]

43. I fear you are right and I fear economic collapse too because

people like you and me will be the first victims before the phoenix rises from the ashes to create a better society.

[bobbolink]

79. I absolutely agree with you! Until the muddleclass falls and experiences

the same desperation we have, they won't get it.

They've become to fat and happy to have hearts anymore.

:mad:

[Forkboy]

45. That would be more than twice what I get now.

Needless to say, I'm hoping to get on SSDI pretty soon.For me, it'd be a step up.

Of course, I can still carry a 150 pound deer through the woods, so maybe I don't deserve it.

[Stand and Fight]

62. Well, don't you know that disablities are only represented by what can be seen? n/t

[bobbolink]

80. The poster is diabled with an inability to see and feel.

:(

[Divine Discontent]

87. lancer78 and rasputin1952 are ill in their own regards

I am ashamed for them and their words in this thread, especially the newbie lancer78 who is a bored troll (haven't we seen lancer name before for an annoying troll?).

know forkboy, everyone one of us who posts several times a week on here have people that know our names and cares about seeing us - I think this way about seeing your name - you are VERY funny and I'm sad to hear that you, like my sibling, live on SSI, and I fully understand what it's like (I live with that sibling) to be horribly concerned not only with bills, food, and gas, but also health issues! AAARRGH!

So, when idiots make heartless comments that seem to insult those suffering like lancer78 does, it makes me wonder if there's a heart in their chest at all.

stay strong, and stay funny, your writing style is enjoyable...

themartyred
(password on youtube)

[bobbolink]

88. Thank you for your kind words! The words of those posters you mention slices like a knife,

and hurts.

That's why so many of us no longer trust "liberals"... they dont' get it anymore than the RW does.

Thank you! I hope to see your posts more often!

[Baby Snooks]

46. The problem with Congress...

The problem with Congress is they are out of touch with reality. They are taken care of more than anyone else in this country. And so they cannot understand how anyone could possibly be having problems.

I would like to see all of them attempt to live on $623 a month. I doubt most of them could live on $6,230 a month. But it isn't just Congress that is out of touch with reality. The American people are out of touch with reality as well. The vast majority of homeless people in this country are homeless because they simply couldn't afford a home. In most major cities, there is very little in the way of affordable housing. Certainly very little that is available for even $623 a month.

A community that turns its back on its poor in the end has turned its back on itself.

A friend who had the means to do so "adopted" two families each year. Each received $25,000, $2,000 a month with $1,000 in a savings account. Each of those families ended up back on their feet and with more than just $1,000 in that savings account at the end of the year. I have to wonder how many others have the means to do so but instead send the money to "charity" that in the end helps no one. One hand reaching out to another is real charity. The one you reach out to and help will in turn help others. Those families did. The Republicans talk about values but have none. It seems they resent anyone who even needs help.

My friend knew what values were. And lived by them.

[Cleita]

47. I know people in my community who are working, not collecting

any government assistance, and they are still homeless, living in their cars or campers because they can't afford apartment rentals. Instead of charity it would be so much easier to raise SS to that $25,000 a year to get back up on their feet. I am still able to do it although it's a challenge. The trouble with homelessness as my homeless friend is teaching me, it batters you so much that your mind and your health starts going and makes matters worse. Since she's got a place to stay and three meals a day, the difference in her attitude and will to live is 190 from where it was a week ago. Honestly, the difference is astounding.

[kineneb]

54. They can't, and as observed, sometimes don't

Hubby gets $1238/month SSDI. That is our only income. We are fortunate to have really cheap housing payments. Like all families with a chronically ill person on Medicaid, we have no assets and no money. When he dies (which will be in the next several years:cry:), I will have no income or monetary assets.

My major concern is having coverage for my medicines, which would cost around $200-300/mo, if I have to pay out of pocket for all of them. Being under 65, I don't qualify for any medical assistance except CMSP, which has a income cutoff of $600; after that all income is "share-of-cost". If I win my SSI disability case, I will get the $623, but will have Medi-Cal. I can't win. The only way to make ends meet is to fudge the system and use cash. If there is no paper trail, it didn't happen.

The reason for the meds- clinical depression... as if our situation didn't make me all the more depressed.

[slipslidingaway]

55. K&R....

they cannot. We have a relative who is in this situation and those that can within the family chip in to supplement her SS income.

[Bitwit1234]

64. How do they afford to live in the DC area

rent there is up to $1400+ a month. The complain about several families living in a house, well they have to with those rents. Most places have no rent control, so people renting can charge whatever they want. Our apartment complex was raising some rents $150 every six months.

[Cleita]

66. Don't talk to me about greedy, heartless landlords. We

voted in rent control in Santa Monica back when the real estate boom happened in California. People were getting forced to either buy their apartments as condos or were thrown out in the street as deveopers came in to tear down affordable rentals and build more condos that the former residents couldn't afford. DH and I left Santa Monica ten years ago when he retired so I think the developers won, but we gave it a good fight.

[rasputin1952]

67. The joys of "Compassionate Conservatism"...

:eyes:

Perhaps the RW should try to eliminate all "social" programs, to include...

Subsidizing oil companies; farms; telecommunications; the auto insustry; financial institutions; pharmaceutical companies; all levels of education as well as numerous and sundry other items, like police & fire departments. Looking at it from their POV, they just suckle off the govt anyway. "If they can't stand on their own in the marketplace, they don't deserve to be a part of the economy.

Yes, let's end all government payments, to include what legislators get paid and all "managment" should be in the trenches digging ditches for nothing...they would be helping the nation by providing a service that actually demands physical labor.


I guess we are just supposed to go back to the 18th Century.

"Compassionate Conservatism" has brought us war w/o end and a $9.3 trillion debt. I wish they weren't so damn "compassionate"!

[bobbolink]

71. That's such a nice copout. I'm so sick of liberals blaming the RW for it all.

You DO remember that it was Clinton who eliminated welfare, right???

And, have you seen ANY Dems trying to restore all those cuts to Medicaid, now that "we're in the majority"????

[rasputin1952]

76. But the RW IS responsible for the mess we are in at this time...

you and I don't matter to them, and they have the power, only because the can manipulate small minded D's that are new to the system.

What the D's have done is actually pretty amazing. Most of the cabinet has been changed, investigations are beginning to bring down the House of Cards because of flank attacks, and the GOP will suffer for a generation after the next election. They have destroyed themselves, and I am glad they have.

Once the #'s increase, there will be more done, hut at this point in time, it is all being done incrementally and with purpose. You cannot win every battle, but you can win the ideological war if you win the battles that count...:)

[bobbolink]

81. Perpetuating this copout enables the suffering to continue.

[rasputin1952]

82. There are times when people must suffer, unfortunately, it is the

only way they will open their eyes.

[bobbolink]

83. Well, thank you. I hope my death is gratifying for you.

:wtf:

[rasputin1952]

84. YOur passing would hurt me dearly, just as the passing of each

life affects me.

I hope you realize that the post that began this sub-thread was done in a sarcastic vein. I wish no ill upon anyone, I am a firm believer that every citizen should be able to count on their government when the need arises. I am as far from a neo-con as one can get.

No child, nor adult, should go hungry in this country; no one should be denied medical care; no one should have to live in constant fear, born of lies, that we are all going to die by some "terrorist" from abroad, when we have plenty of homegrown "terrorists" that pose a far greater threat to us.

I hope you live a long and happy life...we will win this ideological battle, but there will be apin along the way.

[bobbolink]

86. Your tone has been cold since your first post, and YOU must realize

that we feel it, and that it hurts.

I will repeat the obvious--stop blaming it all on the RW. The liberals are enabling the suffering.

Since you say we must suffer, then YOU must accept that you are enabling and condoning DEATH.

If that doesn't matter to you, then we have nothing to speak about.

BUT... you need to really consider what your values are, and just how "liberal" you really are in your core.

I wish you could change places with me, and feel the hurt I feel with those cold words.

[Roon]

89. I live on $789.00 a month

My rent is 400.00....my phone is 54.00....cable is 100.00...and I always send a 100.00 to the power company no matter what the bill is. I recently got a roommate but he doesn't pay rent anymore. I get 135.00 a month in food stamps. I go to the HIV food bank once a week...I also get a roll of bus tokens from the center every two weeks. I get by. I share a duplex with my Grandparents who live on the other side and they charge me half of what they could really get for this place. I guess I am lucky about that. Oh, and of course, I get Liep.

[mdmc]

90. they are not

they will live poorly until they are off of disability.

[hyphenate]

91. I can't get SSI

with what I'm currently getting for Disability: $1195 a month. Out of that, they take my Medicare Part B deduction, so I get $1101 a month, with which I am supposed to pay all my bills and live off of.

I qualify for Medi-care because of the Disability, and here in Massachusetts I get my prescriptions at a discount because of my lack of income level. Which is necessary, because otherwise, I wouldn't be taking any meds and I would die. In addition, the major hospital has what they call their UCP, which covers things because of the poverty level.

It's precisely because of these things that poor people aren't the real target of helping to bring health care to everyone--I get it because of lack of income as do many others, but it's the ones who are in the lower middle class that need it--one disaster, and they SOOL.

Since I came back to Mass., I'm also living in the home of an old friend, which helps enormously, too, in terms of budget. If I had to get an apartment elsewhere, I would simply have to off myself as there would be no way to do it. Life, as always, continues to suck.

[pitohui]

92. this is what i've been wondering a long time

in the late 80s to mid 1990s the payment was something like $400 a month and i was baffled at how the people i knew receiving these payments could survive

obviously some of them had to hustle somehow, but if you're too disabled to be employable, how long can you keep even the best hustle going -- among others, i knew a young woman who had a progressive disease that was stealing her eyesight who was only age 21 and who had received public education through the blind school, because there was no hope that her sight could be saved (think she had the same thing steve wynn has and even he with the best treatment in the world is effectively blind but can afford to conceal it better) -- well, she used to run a number of hustles, rip-offs, promotions chasing, even tried to sue a casino or two, but 1) that isn't an easy way to live, hustles and lawsuits never have guaranteed pay-offs, and 2) what happened when her eyesight became so poor that she could no longer do this? i'll never know, she completely dropped out of sight after i heard rumors that she'd been reported for somehow getting extra disability payments by providing a fake address in a state with better benefits

i think they expect you to live off family, the trouble is, that too often there are multiple issues affecting the family, so this can't happen -- in that young woman's case, her father was dead, her mother was dying of cancer and wasn't receiving treatment, hence obviously didn't have long to live either, inheritance there would be none, since they were both destitute

i honestly don't know what people do, i honestly couldn't figure it out

it almost seems like they want to push desperate people into crime so they can then blame the disabled person for being unlikeable and undeserving