The Crisis Of Disability In America

Source: https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/crisis-disability-america
Published: 2025-12-20
Author: Tyler Durden
Post Date: 2025-12-20 01:27:51 by Horse
Views: 106

Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has an ongoing household survey to provide a snapshot of where we are in jobs and the labor market generally. This survey has usually proven to be the most accurate measure. Part of the survey includes questions concerning disability. It’s not about claims; it’s about answers to the following questions.

Are you deaf, or do you have serious difficulty hearing?

Are you blind, or do you have serious difficulty seeing even when wearing glasses?

Because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition, do you have serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions?

Do you have serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs?

Do you have difficulty dressing or bathing?

Because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition, do you have difficulty doing errands alone such as visiting a doctor’s office or shopping?

You can take issue with this questionnaire and observe that people might perhaps exaggerate. Who, for example, hasn’t navigated a long flight of stairs and found himself rather fatigued at the end? Chronic obesity would tip the scales. At some point in the aging process, we all become disabled.

But let’s say you run the same exact survey for 20 years. Even with inaccuracies in reporting, even with a tendency to exaggerate, the trend line would still be highly significant if only because the survey methods remain the same.

Here is where the news gets grim. The latest survey reports that 36.63 million Americans have a disability. That’s an increase of 7 million over the summer of 2020, at the time when we were supposed to be in the midst of a debilitating pandemic.

The disabilities began to soar only after the inoculation was pushed and sometimes forced on the public.

The upward trend began in February 2021 and has not stopped.

Edward Dowd, investment analyst and author of “Cause Unknown: The Epidemic of Sudden Deaths in 2021 & 2022,” comments:

“The November US BLS Disability data has been updated and it’s grim ... new highs across the board. Disaster.”

It is not plausible to attribute all the increase to the COVID shot, which is now widely acknowledged to be neither safe and nor effective. At the same time, it would be naive not to attribute some or a substantial or even the dominant part of the reason to the debilitating effects of the supposed cure. This is surely one of the great failures in the history of pharmacology. And the data here tells the story.

Other factors aside from the vaccine gone wrong might be substance abuse, depression, lack of exercise, poor diet, and the chronic disease problem generally speaking. The ill health both physical and mental in the United States is breaking all records. That is impacting reporting on disability and also the way in which labor markets are handling disability.

In the backdrop of this is a long-broken system for dealing with the disabled. People injured by the shots, for example, have essentially no options for redress because the makers lobbied for and obtained a liability shield in 1986. Even with documented and obvious harms, the injured have nowhere to go. One hopes that this unjust system will be revisited completely at some point.

My very first assignment in journalism school was to track the progress of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. I worked with a top lobbyist on the bill. The architects of the legislation were very well intentioned and wanted some federal attention on their plight. The bill banned discrimination, allocated vast new sums for benefits, and mandated all reasonable accommodation for the disabled, including physical upgrades of property.

As I looked at the legislation, and having many disabled friends myself, it became obvious to me that the legislation would certainly make a bad situation worse. It would turn a culture that was helpful toward the disabled into one that feared the liability associated with having them in the workforce. The mandates for physical improvements would be hard on business and breed resentment, and the jump in benefits would create a moral hazard that would increase the disabled population.

I explained all of this to the promoters of the legislation and begged them to back off, for the sake of the disabled population. They were aghast at my opinion and essentially told me to shut up. My report eventually was published (I wish I could find it) and warned of a coming disaster. That disaster did in fact come as unemployment among the disabled population grew for the rest of the decade. Business worried about liabilities and discrimination complaints worked on the margin to exclude these people from the workforce, and people began to resent rather than feel empathy toward the disabled population. None of this surprised me.

Sometimes the phrase “good intentions” gets thrown around too much. Not every government welfare program is rooted in good intentions. In the case of disability legislation, there is no question of the desire on the part of its promoters to advance the well-being of those with genuine issues and remove barriers.

Sadly, the Americans with Disabilities Act did exactly the opposite, which was easily predicted by anyone with a modicum of economic understanding.

Since those days, the problem has gotten worse. It is ever harder for the disabled population to be hired. Consider someone with severe autism, for example. The stipulations in the law make it difficult for them to be hired, and even working as volunteers can be looked at unfavorably by labor regulators. It is just much easier to exclude them from the workforce, thus avoiding liability risks and garnering extra attention from the law enforcers.

Now we see the problem getting much worse. With 36.63 million Americans reporting a debilitating disability, we see grave strains on health insurance and institutions that care for such people. With one in 31 children age 8 or younger identified as autistic, the problem is set to get much worse in the years ahead. Many of these people require full-time care, depending fundamentally on family. But when the family is not there, what happens? The institutions have to pick up the bill.

We have here the makings of a medical, social, and economic problem that no president or legislature is in a position to solve. It’s one that will vex national well-being for many decades during our lifetimes. Society aspires to care for such people and treat them with dignity but the regulations and laws have made that very difficult.

There is truth to the observation that societies should be judged by how they treat those least fortunate. America has generally done well but will it in the decades ahead?


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CNN’s Harry Enten Bursts Out Laughing as He Reveals Congressional Dems Hit ‘Lowest Ever’ Ratings-‘Lower than the Dead Sea’(Video)

CNN’s Senior Data Reporter, Harry Enten, couldn’t hold back the laughter when revealing just how low Congressional Democrats’ ratings have fallen.  Enten noted that, in the minds of the American public, they “are lower than the Dead Sea.”

Harry Enten: Democrats in the minds of the American public are lower than the Dead Sea. What are we talking about here? Well, let’s take a look.

The net approval rating for Democrats in Congress, you said it, Kate Bolduan, the lowest ever. Look at this: Overall, they are 55 points underwater. Their approval rating is south of 20%. It’s even worse when you look at Independence. Look at this. Negative 61 points.

That means that their approval rating is 61 points lower than their disapproval rating. Quinnipiac has been polling this question for the better part of the 21st century. They have never found Democrats, at least those in Congress, in worse shape than they are right now.

Kate Bolduan: That’s Independence in overall, but what about Democrats on Democrats?

Harry Enten: Yeah, what about Democrats on Democrats? So part of the reason overall is so low is Independents are driving it low. But that’s not the only reason it’s so low. What about Democrats on Democrats? Democrats, net approval rating of Congressional Democrats.

I want you to keep in mind, they had never rated Democrats negatively until this year.

Right now, what are we talking about? We’re talking about a net approval rating from Democrats. This is Democrats on Democrats. Their approval rating is actually lower, lower than the disapproval rating. And that is quite the drop from October. I think during the shutdown, there was a bit of a boost for Democrats. There was a rallying around the flag effect going on.

But Democrats did not like how that shutdown turned out. They have re-turned against Democrats in Congress. You mentioned Dan Goldman in that intro. One of the reasons that Dan Goldman is in trouble right now in a potential primary against Brad Ladner is because at this point, the Democratic base is so upset with Democrats. So even if Democrats take back Congress, don’t be surprised if Dan Goldman ain’t there because of numbers like this one.

Kate Bolduan: This is quite a shift that you’re looking at here. I mean, so this gets to the midterms, of course. What does this do to Democrats’ chances of taking back majorities in Congress?

Harry Enten: Yeah, we’re talking about it. You mentioned it. What is this? 22, 6. That’s a 28-point decline falling through the floor. But of course, the question is, can Democrats still take back Congress, even with their ratings as low as this?

The answer is yes, but in my mind, it’s definitely hurting them.

Why do I say that? Because take a look at the generic Congressional ballot with a Republican President at this point. Look, Democrats are ahead, but they’re only ahead by four points. Historically, that is quite weak.

At this point, in the  2017/2018 cycle was more than doubled out of 10 points. The same back during George W Bush’s second term in office, where you saw, of course, the Democrats were also ahead by 10 points.

So we’re talking about a lead of less than half what we normally expect. And I think that’s why at this point, there are a lot of Democrats who might be thinking, ‘Hey, we can spike that ball in the end zone.’ But the numbers at this point say, ‘Hold on just a minute. Yes, you’re on your way to a congressional majority, but it’s still a long time.’ With numbers like this, considerably weaker, then historically speaking, it might be a tougher road to hoe than normally.

Kate Bolduan:  Especially if you see that change from October.

Harry Enten: Yeah. When you see your base going a 28-point shift, and when you see numbers like this, you see this overall.

Kate Bolduan: A lot can change.

Harry Enten: A lot can change. At this point, you know what? Democrats are hoping that Donald Trump’s unpopularity can ride them to a congressional majority. But you know what? When you have numbers like this, hold the phone just a second.

Watch: https://twitter.com/i/status/2001663474015916278

Horse posted on 2025-12-20 01:31:28   Reply   Private Reply


#2: Horse    To: Horse (#1)

Graphic showing net approval ratings for Democrats in Congress, highlighting a -55 points overall score, indicating the lowest approval ever, with a host presenting the data.

Horse posted on 2025-12-20 01:33:48   Reply   Private Reply


#3: Horse    To: Horse (#2)








Horse posted on 2025-12-20 01:41:16   Reply   Private Reply