Opposing view: With cuts, ‘the cruelty seems to be the point’

Hardly a day goes by without the Trump administration finding a new way to slash the safety net.

But its latest proposal — which would cut Social Security disability benefits by $2.6 billion over 10 years — is one of the cruelest. It would require millions of beneficiaries to re-prove their disability — and navigate a complex web of red tape and paperwork — every two years. Hundreds of thousands of people could lose benefits even though their condition has not changed.

We’ve seen this movie before, when the Reagan administration implemented a similar policy. People with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, serious mental illness and even terminal cancer were notified they were “no longer disabled” and their benefits terminated.

All told, half a million people lost benefits. Thousands died, many by suicide. President Ronald Reagan’s “disability purge” caused such suffering, it sparked a bipartisan revolt by 18 states that refused to implement it. Ultimately, a rare unanimous vote by Congress ended the nightmarish policy in 1984.

Proving eligibility for benefits is an arduous process that can take months if not years, and numerous pages of medical evidence. America has among the strictest eligibility standards in the world. Over 60% of applications are denied, and tens of thousands of people die each year waiting for benefits.

While vital, benefits are so modest — averaging roughly $1,200 per month for Social Security Disability Insurance and $536 for Supplemental Security Income — that many beneficiaries live in poverty. Unspeakable hardship will result if this proposal takes effect.

The Trump administration — like Reagan’s — claims that the proposal is about efficiency. But that’s hard to square with the administration’s own accounting, finding that the new policy would cost nearly as much to administer ($1.8 billion) as it would “save” over 10 years by taking away survival benefits. But as with the rest of the Trump safety net cuts, the cruelty seems to be the point.

Rebecca Vallas, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, is a former legal aid lawyer who represented people with disabilities.