If You Can't Kill All the Poors, Force Them to Kill Themselves

It's fucking murder, and every austerity hysteric from Ronald Reagan to Rand Paul is guilty.  

 

As for you, longtime chair of the House Appropriations Committee repug Hal Rogers, don't you even dare pretend you give a flying fuck about the extremely impoverished constituents your party's policies created, you hypocritical motherfucker.

Bill Estep at the Herald:

Authorities are investigating the deaths of three people in Eastern Kentucky who might have committed suicide after receiving letters telling them their federal disability benefits were being suspended, according to a lawyer involved in the issue.

Prestonsburg attorney Ned Pillersdorf said a state police detective told him about the cases late Tuesday.

The detective said police think the three deaths were "related to the suspension letters," Pillersdorf said. He declined to release the detective's name.

About 900 former clients of Floyd County lawyer Eric C. Conn recently received notices from the Social Security Administration that their payments had been suspended because of suspicion that the cases Conn submitted for them included fraudulent information from four doctors.

Most of the people who received suspension letters live in Eastern Kentucky or West Virginia.

Many of the people have no other income, so the loss of their benefits has caused tremendous concern in the area.

U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, a Republican who represents Eastern and southern Kentucky, said he told officials at the Social Security Administration about the suspected suicides during a meeting Wednesday, making the point that the agency was dealing literally with a life-and-death situation.

"You could tell it made an impact," Rogers said.

Rogers said he asked Social Security officials to restore benefits to people while going through the process of re-determining their eligibility.

It was improper for the agency to cut payments to people before giving them a chance to make the case for continued benefits, Rogers said.

"It's not the American way to treat people as convicted before giving them a chance to be heard," he said.

Rogers said agency officials committed to giving him an answer soon on whether the commissioner would lift the benefit suspensions.