Disabled next on right-wing hit list?

The past 15 years have been the era of "soak the poor" - a fact that highlights conservative meanness and self-righteousness. (Oops, I mean "tuff luv lolololz.") Who'd be surprised if they make the next era one of "soak the disabled"?

In some ways, it already is, as a subset of the Far Right's war on the poor. I wouldn't be surprised though if they make disability programs a more specific target.

Disabled Americans may qualify for Supplemental Security Income. SSI only provides about $600 monthly, and this benefit is reduced every time a recipient earns any money from gainful employment.

But to able-bodied conservatives who make $60,000 monthly, $600 a month for the disabled is too much. A $700,000,000,000 bailout for the banking industry isn't too much, but $600 for a disabled person is.

It's already much harder to qualify for SSI now than it used to be. Substance abusers were kicked off the rolls in the '90s even if their drug abuse stemmed from an underlying disability for which they would otherwise qualify. Many adults lost their SSI because they had gotten in trouble with the law as juveniles - under new rules that were enforced on an ex post facto basis.

If a person has an invisible disability, it's much harder to qualify now than it once was, even if their condition impairs them nearly as much as if they were in a wheelchair. Many victims of this trend are war veterans.

If an applicant was illegally barred from regular schools after being labeled with a disability, this does not on its own qualify them for SSI. Under the standard used today, one is classed as disabled if it can be used against them, not if it benefits them.

The cuts in SSI largely resulted from conservatives listening to traitors like the Heritage Foundation that wanted to make this cause a high priority. But now, after conservatives thrust their knives into the backs of veterans and of those who were denied an equal education, they're now fixing to twist the knives to inflict maximum pain.

Their latest screaming point is that SSI is a plot by "the liberals" to confiscate property. I have no idea how. According to them, it is because it is. Ask them why, and that's what they'll say. They make no more sense than if they had replied, "Because it bips."

If we're lucky, Obama won't be another Bill Clinton. Clinton sure didn't halt Congress's war on the poor, but I sure hope Obama doesn't let the war on the disabled gain steam. Lately, under Republican and Democratic administrations alike, the class warriors have been permitted to get away with anything. Many of their so-called opponents did nothing. Zero.

And that's why SSI is in the Far Right's crosshairs now. They got their way in gutting other benefits programs, so why not SSI too?

You give the corporatists a foot in the door, and they ask for more. They see they've won, and that encourages them to take things further. If they get their way this time, what's next? Are they going to abolish Medicare? I've read enough to know that a lot of them want to.