Americans who receive Social Security disability benefits for any reason may need to be careful what they post on social media, or perhaps even remain off of social media entirely, if the Trump regime gets their way.
According to the New York Times, the Trump regime has been working on a system to monitor the social media accounts of the disabled. You know, to make sure they really are disabled.
The Trump administration has been quietly working on a proposal to use social media like Facebook and Twitter to help identify people who claim Social Security disability benefits without actually being disabled. If, for example, a person claimed benefits because of a back injury but was shown playing golf in a photograph posted on Facebook, that could be used as evidence that the injury was not disabling.
“There is a little bitty chance that Social Security may be snooping on your Facebook or your Twitter account,” Robert A. Crowe, a lawyer from St. Louis who has represented Social Security disability claimants for more than 40 years, said he cautioned new clients. “You don’t want anything on there that shows you out playing Frisbee.”
Disability comes in many forms and, considering the exact nature of a specific disability, being disabled does not necessarily mean you can't swing a golf club or throw a Frisbee for your dog.
But none of that would matter to the people who would propose a system like this in the first place, of course. The goal is to find something -- anything -- to deny benefits to people. This is comparable to the Trump regimes attacks on Medicaid and food stamps; attacks meant to reduce enrollment through a combination of red tape and intimidation.