Throughout the election cycle, this blog will update you with the latest information on candidates and races that are relevant to your life in Rochester. We're asking you to make it complete.
That's the idea behind "Eye on the Vote." Excited about a certain race? Let us know. How was your experience going to vote? Who's doing a good (or bad) job campaigning? How could we improve our coverage? Let us know.
We'll be asking questions regularly on this blog, and we'd love to hear from you.
Today, we want to know -- What's your big issue? What stance makes or breaks a candidate in your eyes, and gets you excited about going to the polls?
Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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Why are the candidates not talking about this extremely important issue that affects every working American?
How long could YOU survive with ABSOLUTELY NO INCOME, if you got sick or hurt, and could no longer work? What you are about to learn may have an impact your life forever!
Social Security Disability (SSDI), is an insurance plan administered by the Federal Government that is paid for by FICA Tax deductions out of American's hard earned paychecks. Most Americans know nothing about this insurance unless they need to apply for this benefit themselves. It was created to be a safety net for millions of disabled Americans, and for many it has become their only lifeline for survival. There is a huge shameful scandal involving this program, that most Americans know nothing about unless they need to apply for this benefit themselves, and the misconduct and neglect, that our government has perpetrated against the weakest citizens of this nation is an atrocity! Due to current program problems applying for this benefit often exacerbates/creates new health issues, and many lose all their financial resources, their homes, even their lives while waiting for help. If you don’t suffer from depression before applying for benefits, chances are you will, in fact many contemplate or attempt suicide. It seems that this program is currently structured to be very complicated, confusing, and with as many obstacles as possible, to discourage claimants, sucking the life out of them, hoping they “give up or die” trying to get their benefits. That is how the government keeps your money from you, in order to use it for “pork barrel” spending, catering to special interest groups, investment in other countries, making bombs or starting wars. In our country you’re required to have auto insurance in order to drive a car, you pay for health insurance, life insurance etc. If you filed a claim against any of these policies, after making your payments, and the company tried to deny you coverage when you had a legitimate claim, you would be doing whatever it took, even suing, to make them honor your policy. Yet the government is denying Americans their right to legitimate SSDI benefits everyday, and you should be outraged!
Some staggering statistics:
At least 16,000 people fighting for SSDI disability benefits died while awaiting a decision (CBS News Report – Disabled And Waiting - 1/14/08). This is more than 4 times the number of Americans killed in the Iraq war since it began.
During 2007, two-thirds of all applicants that were denied - nearly a million people - simply gave up after being turned down the first time (CBS News Report – Failing The Disabled - 1/15/08)
In 2006 there were 2,134,088 new applications for SSDI benefits and as of October 2007, there have been 1,844,898 new claims.
There are about 1,417,103 total pending cases and out of that number, 154,841 are veterans.
Nationally as of September 2007, over 65% of disability cases were denied at the initial stage of the disability claims process and it took from 101.8 – 113.7 days for claimants to receive the initial decision on their claim.
If a claimant appeals the initial denial asking for reconsideration, in all but 10 test states where the reconsideration phase has been removed, 87.3% of cases were denied and the waiting time for this phase was an average of 90.1 days.
750,000 are waiting for hearings with an average wait time of 512 days
Two-thirds of those who appeal an initial rejection eventually win their cases (New York Times 12/10/07)
If you think this could not happen to you - you could be dead wrong!
Read more here:
Social Security Disability Nightmare – It Could Happen To You!
http://www.frontiernet.net/~lindaf1/SOCIALSECURITYDISABILITYNIGHTMARE.html
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