Free Republic

<p>Yossif Sakirski used to enjoy painting buildings, going to parties - and having a little financial freedom, thanks to his monthly $546 Supplemental Security Income check.</p> <p>The Baltimore resident doesn't paint or go to parties these days because of a painful leg injury. Worse, he is scheduled to lose his monthly checks in five months because of a quirk in U.S. immigration law - one of the thousands of immigrants throughout the nation facing a similar fate.</p>

<p>About 12,000 people per week in this country apply for Social Security disability benefits. The time it takes to process a claim from the original filing date is now, in many cases, at least one to three years or longer. Claimants, in addition to their illnesses, face homelessness, bankruptcy and even death while waiting for their cases to be approved.</p>

<p>President Bush's plan to go to the moon and to Mars without much additional funding will force NASA and Congress to make hard choices -- particularly regarding the space shuttle and the hugely expensive International Space Station, observers said.</p> <p>The Bush plan increases NASA's budget by just $1 billion over the next five years. That means the space agency has to figure out how to carry out the mission -- first a return to the moon and later a trip to Mars -- without a lot of additional money in its budget.</p>

Those who have noted my username in my posting history at FR will recall that I have mentioned once or twice before that my wife, beautiful and loving human being that she is, also happens to be profoundly mentally ill. Her primary ailment is a severe anxiety disorder with secondary manifestations of savage depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. If we had not found each other, it's most likely she would have committed suicide, and if anything should happen to me, I fear for her survival. I raise these points not as a plea for sympathy or self-justification, only for context. These...

Social Security's Ticket to Work program - designed to help people with disabilities go to work and achieve their employment goals - is now available nationwide. The Ticket to Work program is one of the best ways to help Americans with disabilities realize their dreams through meaningful and successful careers. People receiving a ticket in the mail also get information telling them how to use it to get vocational rehabilitation services, as well as employment and other support services from any of the employment service providers. Social Security now has contracts with hundreds of groups and organizations around the country,...

November 30, 2003 The Unemployment Myth By AUSTAN GOOLSBEE CHICAGO The government's announcement on Tuesday that the economy grew even faster than expected makes the current "jobless recovery" even more puzzling. To give some perspective, unemployment normally falls significantly in such economic boom times. The last time growth was this good, in 1983, unemployment fell 2.5 percentage points and another full percentage point the next year. That's what happens in a typical recovery. So why not this time? Because we have more to recover from than we've been told. The reality is that we didn't have a mild recession. Jobs-wise,...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - The government has begun cutting off payments to thousands of disabled and elderly refugees and people seeking asylum who missed a deadline to become American citizens. About 4,300 people who have been in the country at least seven years are losing monthly Supplemental Security Income checks. When that happens, they also lose eligibility for Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor and elderly.</p>

WASHINGTON -- One in three drug addicts and alcoholics removed from a federal disability program in 1996 failed to make up even half the money they once got from the government, researchers reported Monday. The Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, program gives cash benefits to very poor, disabled Americans. Until 1996, a program called Drug Addiction and Alcohol allowed very poor alcoholics and drug addicts about $500 a month from SSI, plus health benefits through Medicaid, if they were receiving treatment for their addictions. The program started small but grew rapidly in the 1980s and 1990s as courts ruled that...