Pubdate: Sun, 11 Feb 2001
Source: The Morning Sun (KS)
Copyright: 2001 The Morning Sun of Pittsburg, Kansas
Contact:  P.O. Box H Pittsburg,KS 66762
Fax: (316) 231-0645
Website: http://www.morningsun.net/
Forum: http://chat.morningsun.net:90/eshare/server?action=120&board=10&expand=1
Author: Larry Monaghan

DISABILITY COSTS

Dear Editor,

President Bush is talking about scaling back Social Security Disability 
programs to save money with his new plan to allow workers to invest their 
Social Security money in the stock market.

To put this in perspective, the average Social Security Disability 
recipient gets about $5,000 each year. On the other hand, one law 
enforcement officer cost about $100,000 a year in salary and equipment 
alone. The cost to arrest, try and incarcerate one nonviolent drug offender 
is about $60,000 a year. I

f each law enforcement officer catches one nonviolent drug offender per 
month, that equals a bottom end number of $820,000 per year in total cost 
to the taxpayers, or as much money as the US is currently spending to 
provide for 165 disabled persons who have had to prove they are incapable 
of providing for themselves in Social Security court.

If the US government were merely to stop enforcing laws against nonviolent 
drug crimes, the savings would allow the most vulnerable of our society, 
the elderly and disabled, to stop living on cat food and Salvation Army 
handouts.

Larry Monaghan, Arcadia
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