Manchester, N.H. — While speaking at the “Legislative Leaders’ Meeting & Breakfast“, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul made strong allegations that many of those receiving support under disabilities insurance are undeserving. In a no-holds-barred speech he delivered last Wednesday, Sen. Paul told:
“The thing is, in all of these programs there’s always somebody who’s deserving, but everybody in this room knows somebody who is gaming the system.
“What I tell people is, if you look like me and you hop out of your truck, you shouldn’t be getting your disability check. Over half of the people on disability are either anxious or their back hurts. Join the club. Who doesn’t get up a little anxious for work every day and their back hurts? Everybody over 40 has a little back pain.”
Many were offended by Sen. Paul’s words as some pointed out that the ‘anxiety‘ he could be referring to could very well be PTSD that a war veteran may be suffering from, although the senator did not elaborate on the specifics of the category where ‘undeserving’ disability benefactors fall, which he called ‘anxiety’.
In November just last year, AP reported that only about 0.2 percent of benefit claims were not proper— meaning 99.8 percent of the disability claims were legitimate, as determined by the Social Services’ inspector general.
Sen. Paul— who’s supposedly eyeing presidential candidacy— is yet to comment on the outrage his speech has caused.
Source: on the msnbc website: Rand Paul takes on disability claims