In 1981 I was a Managing Attorney of the Senior Citizen Unit at The Legal Aid Society in Columbus, Ohio. Our ability to represent our clients was severely curtailed by President Reagan’s cut-off of funds to the Legal Service Corporation which distributed funds to agencies serving the legal needs of the poor, disabled and senior citizens through grants. Suddenly, we learned we could no longer be paid. Many left the agency. I remained, the sole attorney left to handle over 300 open cases. His reason? He disliked that our agencies sued the county, state and federal governments when benefits were illegally denied.
I found a part-time job at a toy store 5 nights a week and on Saturday and Sunday to pay my school loan. I became a live-in manager at two rooming houses for women students at The Ohio State University to provide a roof over my head. I took over the yard work and minor maintenance( I taught myself to tile the shower, repair locks and lay carpet)and installed soda machines in the basement to pay for transportation, phone service and medical care. My clients fared far worse.
Reagan laid off 2,840 workers, eliminated or reduced benefits to the poor. He also terminated every recipient of Social Security and SSI payments based on disability, requiring each person to reapply for benefits. He claimed massive fraud when the actual fraud rate for food stamps, for example, was one-tenth of 1 percent. This is the same time frame when a huge Savings and Loan fraud scandal decimated clients of Savings and Loans and saw bankers imprisoned for fraud.
Three of my clients died as a direct result of losing benefits. I was able file suit to get benefits restored. However, legal justice is a slow process. Court cases take time. Especially when hundreds thousands of cases increase docket constraints. Especially, when the attorneys who would represent persons with zero incomes also lost their jobs.
It was a brilliant strategy to reduce expenses so wealthy citizens and corporations could see a decrease in taxes. The public relations campaign his administration promoted claimed taxes were too high, public benefits too costly, and “those people” too lazy to work. He also claimed a Nuer to be illustrated massive fraud.
It is difficult to survive such programmatic loss of income, housing,food and healthcare. But, particularly horrendous for those disabled and unable to work, or those aged and too exhausted and ill to work. This were the clients I watched suffer and die. There were many more I did not know. Many more who suffered or died across the country. Yes, it was temporary. How quickly would die living on the street? Hungry and without sufficient food? Unable to buy your insulin or blood pressure medication? Would you even seek medical care?
We are watching a much more massive attack on our fellow citizens and the institutions in place to meet all of our needs. Those discussing the anti-fraud hunt by private citizen Elon Musk mistakenly buy into the story. Let me give you a few reasons why the stories you are hearing about fraud are meaningless.
If a person on Social Security does not survive the full month, the benefit they received at the start of their month becomes an overpayment. It then must be paid back to the SSA. If you have ever settled an estate you know it takes months, if not years, to settle the decedent’s death. In fact, it may be there is no survivor to even notify creditors, including SSA, that the person has died.
For example, my own mother died of cancer. She died on the 27th. Of February. As a result, the Social Security check she had received and used became an overpayment. If she had died on the 28th. She would have remained entitled to the check. How many of those the media says appear as overpayments are truly simple accounting practices in motion, some slower than others. Even when the overpayments are cleared and checks no longer mailed out or deposited because the recipient’s mail is returned or bank account is closed, there may have been no death notice to SSA so the person issued a SS card remains on the books even though they are no longer receiving benefits. What we are hearing on the news is an over simplistic analysis of complex situations handled by our pubic servants, civil service workers who know how to work their way through a system that covers every single person ever issued a SS card. Can you even balance your check book?
A second example illustrating the tendency to use propaganda rather than complex analysis delivering the “news”. As a law student I worked for IRS during tax season. I was one of thousands of temporary workers needed across the country to first help, print, count, package and ship tax forms. As the date arrived for returns to be filed, I shifted to a temporary location to review and approve returns, checking for errors and calculation for payments due or the issuance of refunds for individual taxpayers. Others were hired to audit the returns. And others handled more complex corporate returns. Inspectors reviewed our work on a daily basis. We were sworn to secrecy and not permitted to discuss or disclose any information on the forms we reviewed, even among ourselves.
Since that time the work forces at SSA and IRS have been greatly reduced. They are now being decimated. Who will guard our information? Who will assure the data describing our earnings and payments will be accurate and forthcoming? The Inspectors General have been fired. The leadership is being removed because they know they are required by law to hold the information in total confidentiality, and resist the prying eyes of non-employees demanding access for no stated purpose based on fact or substantiated cause. In trying to protect us and follow the law they are losing their jobs.
This is not business as usual. This is a continuation of attempts to hamstring care for our citizenry in order to benefit a few which began with a President Reagan and has been on-going for 40 years. Propaganda works. The attacks on, and underfunding of, public education over these 40 years has made it easier to believe propaganda. The attacks on labor unions and decrease in actual wages has left less time for self-education, civic involvement, and attention to detail in families now needing 2-4 jobs to keep a roof over their heads.
Do not listen to what is being said to you. Watch what is being done to you: increasing unemployment, un-regulated union-busting which decreases wages, more people losing housing, going hungry, unable to access health care… more suffering…more death. All for no good purpose. Actually, for no purpose whatever; other than to enrich the few at the expense of the many. Is this what you voted for?
annarino writes 
RE-POSTING: PAST IS PROLOGUE
Recently, readers outside the United States seem to have discovered posts I wrote on my other, earlier blog “Worthington for Obama 2012”. This prompted me to re-read them myself. They explain why I am not keen to listen to the shock and surprise at the current political climate. Anyone could have seen it coming, even I.
Since long before 2012 it was clear that a long-term strategy to destroy what the Republican Party could not compete with, what white supremacists (who started a civil war) and Christian nationalists who stole Native American lands and formed the KKK) have long abhorred, was thoughtfully and carefully organized through groups such as ALEC ( American Legislative Exchange Council formed in 1973 to create model bills across state legislatures),Tea Party (movement within the Republican Party to oppose Policies of President Barack Obama formed in 2009), The Heritage Foundation (Conservative Republican think tank formed in 1973 to popularize and enable President Reagan’s policies, and which developed and now leads Project 2025).
These groups were welcomed and happily utilized by the Republican Party. The changing demographics of the United States (think immigration no longer western-Europe dominant), enforcement of civil rights through the court decisions upholding constitutional rights following the Civil Rights Movement. The Republican Party either had to embrace diversity (accept the equality of people color, women and LGBQTQIA+ individuals) or change the rules by undermining the courts, gerrymandering districts, and suppressing the vote. They are nothing if not thorough. Over the past 30 years they stoped sneaking in the dark and spoke out loud as they convinced Americans that Democrats were the corruptors via their disinformation campaigns. Were you not paying attention? How could you when they kept you so entertained. Now their head honcho is an ex-“reality” TV star. Entertainment has been used as a distraction for those worn out by laboring long hours and just needing a break from reality. It is time to get off the couch and start paying attention.
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) was filed by a conservative non-profit the FEC had stopped from promoting and airing a film unjustly criticizing (disinformation- at- the- ready) presidential candidate Hilary Clinton; and, McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission(2014) weakened regulations reversing centuries of campaign finance regulations meant to eliminate/reduce corruption. We all know “money talks.” Citizens United and other groups are now free to use any amount by any person of wealth to influence an election during a time when 99% of the country’s wealth is held by 1% of the population. The result is inevitable. A very small minority controls the election through its unlimited political contributions. Super Pacs can include “dark money groups” who may act un-named “in the dark” so we never know about their direct coordination with candidates. McCutcheon v. FEC eliminated aggregate contributions limits. The sky is now the limit.
Corruption has never been easier. No wonder Americans have lost faith in elections and campaigns. No wonder they mistrust courts and politicians. And no, they are not “all the same.” These changes were fought by Democrats who opened what had been a Dixiecrat party to a tent large enough to embrace diverse populations, who advanced women’s rights, who worked to assure voting rights and Equal Opportunity using affirmative action to redress the denial of rights and opportunities for over a century, and restore the rights of labor unions and workers. Diversity and Inclusion (DEI) is not evil because of the good it does for all Americans. It is lambasted by Republicans because they want to keep the tent closed to all but white men and those willing to submit to white male dominance (which, unfortunately, includes too many white women).
Which brings us to today, not to what I wrote in 2012. Those who say they are “trying to understand how Vice-President Kamala lost have been ignoring the reality for decades. Those who are shocked by the outcome of the last election have not been paying attention. Donald trump is not the leader of a party. He is only the cheerleader for a corruption of the political process put in place by the Republican Party long ago. From the Reagan era on, Republicans have embraced these corrupt practices and strategies to secure their election and re-election despite the demographic changes and heightened awareness of constitutional rights. They have created a disinformation system bar none, even aligned themselves with Russian disinformation campaigns, feeding information to Russian operatives (remember Paul Manafort and Trump’s first campaign?).
But, now, the Republican Party which was a respected competitor, is dead. A fascist government will replace our democratic republic. Our constitution is up-ended by a corrupted Supreme Court put in place by the Heritage Foundation. Project 2025 is in process, replacing the transition process which we have long relied upon. National security secrets are at risk. Those securing our national security still in the field will soon be at risk of disclosure (Trump owes our enemies big time). Yet, we continue to ignore the reality set in place 30+ years ago and pretend this is a normal transition. We discuss the relative qualifications of unqualified sycophants (“Good “Nazis”). We elected a fascist whom we would not hire to babysit our children, entrusting our national survival to his care. We are the fools. we are getting what we deserve, for failing to pay attention and give a damn about our country. We have for too long put self-interest above national interest.
I have seen this day coming for a very long time. And here is what I know to be true:
No one can steal your joy.
No one can convince you to submit.
No one place you in fear.
No one can destroy your faith in freedom.
No one can compromise your hopes and dreams.
No one can take way your power.
No one can force you to give up.
No one can disinform a truth-seeker.
Keep fighting, friends of democracy.
Keep registering voters.
Keep educating our young people.
Keep cleaning the air, water and soil.
Keep reducing green-house emissions.
Keep supporting your community.
Keep telling the truth.
Good always overcomes evil.
Joy always overcomes grief.
Love always overcomes hate.
We are not done. Not by a long-shot!
Perhaps I am the greatest fool. I still believe in Americans. I still believe in you. Do not make me regret it.
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