Government tells amputee to get a job, as benefits will stop

St. Pete Times ^ | August 28, 2009 | Kameel Stanley

[ConservativeStatement]

TAMPA — Todd Cohen was diagnosed with bone cancer in 1994 when he was 19. The cancer led to the amputation of his right leg.

Since then, Cohen has learned to walk with a prosthesis. He got an education, but he has never held a steady job.

He's gotten by with Medicaid and monthly Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, checks that have ranged from $271 to $650.

[pnh102]

If this person is capable of working, then why shouldn’t he?

[pabianice]

This has to be a lead-up to a story on how ObamaCare would help this guy...

[geo40xyz]

Its also way pass time to stop payments for ADC after the second child.... One mistake, two mistakes is enough NO additional dollars on the 3rd or greater child....

[pallis]

It sounds like he is ready to brave the world on his own, and I bet a lot of people would be willing to help him help himself.

[dfwgator]

Patient I’ve got a triple fracture of the right leg, dislocated collar bone and multiple head injuries, so I do most of the heavy work, like helping the surgeon.
Interviewer’s Voice What does that involve?
Patient Well, at the moment we’re building him a holiday home.
Interviewer’s Voice What about the nurses?
Patient Well, I don’t know about them. They’re not allowed to mix with the patients.
Interviewer’s Voice Do all the patients work?
Patient No, no, the ones that are really ill do sport.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Yet my ex-girlfriend’s been living off the public dole for over a year and a half, and hasn’t bothered looking for a job.

[McLynnan]

He sounds perfect for employment at a call center.

[digger48]

I know a few severely physically disabled people who not just hold down physically demanding jobs, but also excel at them.

For instance, a one-armed tree trimming owner/operator, also missing half of his remaining hand, who runs chainsaws, machinery, drags brush and outworks all of his young employees.

Another, a midget with bad hips who can barely walk, and blind in one eye, that is the best damn small engine repairman around. We drive 80 miles to have him work on our stuff.

[hinckley buzzard]

The key to the story is that this guy was a highschool dropout with no ambition, before he got sick.

[svcw]

Why isn’t he working?
My dad lost an arm in WWII and broke his back twice.........never ever was without work.
Losing a leg.......again why isn’t he working?

[dagogo redux]

” . . . get a job, as benefits will stop”

And why shouldn’t they stop?

I believe it was Mark Twain who said something to the effect that of all our human drives, laziness was the strongest.

Some other brilliant thinker has also pointed out that the most addictive substance known to man is a monthly check from the government. I would add that these checks are also the most devastating, robbing the addict of both their motivation and their self esteem.

Either this person is not really trying to find work, or he has something else going on. Either way, it is certainly not my concern, worthy of yet more taxes taken from me at the point of a gun. If the person who wrote the article or those who read it feel really sorry for this fellow they are certainly free to support him with their OWN money if they want: But you know they won’t.

[Gritty]

Maybe he should join ACORN?

Then he would get all the free government money he wants without having to work for it!

[Abathar]

A very good friend of mine who has since passed on lost his leg when he was about 17.

He got really drunk and passed out in the backseat of a car overnight while in a position that cut off his circulation. They had to take his leg off, and even with the prosthesis he could still work harder as a roofer than any two guys on the crew. He worked 60 to 70 hours a week and never complained once to anyone I knew.

The only time he really had a problem that I saw was when he was driving a friends Harley his leg fell off and he had to set the bike down, he stopped and it leaned the wrong way on him.

Handicaps are what you make of them.

[worst-case scenario]

Does his injury prevent him from holding a desk job?Not to sound mean, but he probably could work if he wanted to. One of the top programmers at one of my former shops suffered from a spinal injury that had rendered him a paraplegic. He was wheelchair-bound but showed up every day and loved the work. Maybe this fellow should get some retraining rather than another year of payments.

Whether or not this guy could find a job in this economy is another matter.

[BigBobber]

There are people blogging or posting on the Internet all day who once and while slip up and admit they are on LTD.

If you can work a computer you are employable. End of story.

[Glenn]

Several handicapped people work in my building. A few of them are in wheelchairs. They are bright and articulate.

Get a job.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***The key to the story is that this guy was a highschool dropout with no ambition, before he got sick. ***

Sounds like my worthless brother-in-law (If you know him he probably owes you money). He hasn't worked since 1980 and draws all sorts of government aid.
He parlayed a high school football injury into a Vietnam war injury and draws vet benefits. Had a private room on his ship in the Navy (the brig), and knows everything! Just ask him. A real jerk!

[Dutchboy88]

I’m sure most of the FReepers here have seen the documentary on the girl with no bottom half of her body who enjoyed being an auto mechanic and had a child, to boot. She moved across the floor/road/sidewalk on a roller board and even drove a hot custom Mustang in drag races using hand controls. Handicapped? She just spoke as though she worked around the issue.

[maine-iac7]

One way to cut down on the Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid drain is to ween people like this - including the ‘disabled due to alcohol/drugs...and the new ‘disease de rigure: “Bi-polar” - To be paying these people out of a fund they either paid little or nothing into is theft.

I know too many young to 40 year olds who are perfectly capable of working but are so comfortable on their free income, food stamps (they now get for food than I can spend), TOTALLY free Medicaid - no co-pay, no deduction from from monthly check, no $ out of their pocket, whatever...and they have NO physical disability at all. (Bi-Polar is a real catch all. It can't be proven by any tests. All you need to know is the right answers on the query - and boom - you're home free forever.

There should be a time limitation to these cases. Say, if you're an alcoholic/druggie - you have to attend AA or rehab and work at least part time. You have one year and you're on your own.

My youngest son, at 21, had a lethal form of bone cancer - in his upper arm. AT the time, he was manager of a restaurant.
He went through the cut-burn-poison hell of today's treatments. He couldn't even get any disability THEN.
They told him he likely wouldn't make it, that he'd loose the arm, that he'd likely never have children.

He laughed in their faces.

His arm is a mess of metal and disfigured and always in danger of breaking - The only job he could get when strong enough again was as a dishwasher in a 400-seat restaurant in Florida - with no insurance, even if excluding for cancer.

For the past 15 years, he has been head chef/kitchen manager and he has 3 beautiful children...

This guy in the story - you have two good arms and a head - I don't know about the brain. But he - and millions of others capable of working - need to stop sucking at the teat of tax payers money.

That, Tort reform and elimination of fraud would better solve the money problems of S.C./Medicare/Medicaid. The Socialists know this. But that wouldn't give them control over us. He is a classic example of what the welfare state to often sucks people into - dependency and ‘pity me.
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