Frank Bruni of the New York Times published an op-ed arguing that the tripling of persons receiving Social Security disability benefits is being caused, in part, by those who are “gaming the system.” David Vogner of the Huffington Post published his own opinion on the HuffPost’s blog rebutting Mr. Bruni’s opinion, asserting that the increase in recipients is a result of claimants being unable to find employment. One of Mr. Vogner’s counterpoints to Mr. Bruni’s pejorative description of Social Security disability recipients deserves to be highlighted and clarified: Social Security Disability Income Benefits (DIB) are only paid to those who have paid enough into Social Security. Mr. Vogner’s defense of Social Security overlooks Mr. Bruni’s misleading reference to the federal Treasury; disability payments come from FICA and Self Employment Contribution taxes and the Disability Insurance Trust Fund, a separate account within the Treasury that is funded by FICA and Self Employment Contribution taxes. Semantically, some DIB payments come from the Treasury, but the whole truth omitted by Mr. Bruni is that DIB recipients are paid from the same account those recipients paid into when they were working – one could argue that Mr. Bruni is using a straw man argument to make his point.
