this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2024
269 points (97.5% liked)

News

23121 readers
3300 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

In the twelve-month stretch from October 2022 through September 2023, 30,000 people died while waiting for federal disability determinations, according to Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley. Martha asked Harris what she would do as president for people, like herself, who are waiting for disability decisions while in desperate need of health insurance.

Delays in those decisions, driven in part by understaffing and a Covid-related rise in disability rates, have driven the typical wait time from four months in 2019 to seven months today, often coupled with the need to appeal an initial rejection, which can take years. The processing times represent a mounting crisis for the more than 1 million Americans who apply for disability in a given year.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 66 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (3 children)

The entire disability system in the USA is built to hurt people, top to bottom. It forces people to live in perpetual poverty and often struggle to afford the help they need for their disabilities. They can't get married without their benefits being cut, because now they have family who is expected to care for them.

This is just another symptom of a system designed to prevent as many people from collecting benefits as possible. If someone dies while waiting, that's no money that needs to be paid out. It's a "win" in terms of the budget, because it's reducing costs by denying benefits.

The USA is truly run by fucking vultures, and while the Republican party is responsible for most of the horrific messes, there are a not-insignificant number of congresspeople who are "Democrats" but may as well be Republican, like Joe Manchin.

[–] ZeroCool@slrpnk.net 22 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

It really pisses me off that we treat people like this. I wish this country actually believed everyone is entitled to dignity and worked to provide it along with a basic standard of living. We easily could. But we don’t because billionaires need their tax cuts and corporations need their handouts.

[–] bobs_monkey@lemm.ee 5 points 12 hours ago

Dignity isn't profitable, that's the basic problem.

[–] meeeeetch@lemmy.world 11 points 16 hours ago

The Republican Party project is to make sure things get worse, and the 'Responsible Moderate Democrats' make sure things don't get better.

[–] tal@lemmy.today 3 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

are "Democrats" but may as well be Republican, like Joe Manchin.

IIRC, Manchin previously announced that he isn't going to run again.

If he weren't fairly close to Republican positions, he probably wouldn't even be in office now; during the time that he was in politics, West Virginia shifted from being a very blue state to being a very red state. I'd argue that that's mostly a function of party realignment than changes inside West Virginia, but it doesn't matter much from the standpoint of a politician's electoral viability, as the brand still has an impact.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Manchin

As of 2024, Manchin represents what is by a significant margin the most Republican-leaning constituency of any Democrat or independent in Congress.

Manchin has called himself a "centrist, moderate, conservative Democrat" and is generally regarded as the Senate Democratic caucus' most conservative member. 

Hmm. Apparently -- hadn't heard of this until reading this -- he's also no longer a Democrat, re-registered as an independent. The brand probably became too much of a political liability.

He became the state's senior U.S. senator when Jay Rockefeller left office in 2015 and was West Virginia's only congressional Democrat until 2024, when he registered as an independent.

EDIT: And it's not just that all West Virginia's federal representatives except him are Republican. Here's the current state Senate and House composition, to give an idea, red showing Republican and blue Democrat. Not easy to be elected as a Democrat in West Virginia in 2024.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia_Legislature

EDIT2: Yeah, he announced back in 2023 that he's not seeking re-election.