Vigilante-style harassment of the disabled community is more common than disability fraud.

Vigilante-style harassment of the disabled community is more common than disability fraud.

Vigilante-style harassment of the disabled community is more common than disability fraud.

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It's just that our daily experiences don't make the news unless you put your hands on us or damage our property.

I don’t care.

No -- seriously.

Don’t even try with: “But it’s serious! It’s Rampant!!” 

Because I don’t believe it is “rampant.” And even if it were?

I. Do. Not. Care. Seriously.

It’s better to let a thousand normal-ability people have access to something because it makes life easier, then to deny one disabled person access to something that makes life possible.

One time, my P.T. tried to convince me of the “rampant Medicare fraud” that he’s seen.  One time, he said, he saw a guy go into a gym in a motorized wheelchair, then get out of the chair to run around and play a game of basketball with his friends. 

He said this kind of thing is why Medicare needs to crack down on eligibility -- and deny paying for wheelchairs even for those for whom walking is a danger to their health, because with every step, they risk a fall.

So -- okay -- that guy (probably) had no medical need for a wheelchair. But even if he got the chair “just for giggles,” my P.T. had no proof that it was bought on Medicare’s dime. My guess? He bought it used, off Craig’s List, or some such, with his own money. ‘Cause dude bros, who want wheelchairs because they’re “cool,” are not likely the sort of people who have the patience to jump through the hoops that Medicare already puts up.

When that story failed to elicit my outrage, my P.T. went on to describe some able-bodied man who got Medicare to pay for a wheelchair so he could drive it to work, because his car had been repossessed.  Again, he reported seeing this guy driving the chair around the sidewalks of a local city, and again:

First, I wonder why my P.T. is so sure that the chair was bought on Medicare’s dime, just by looking from a distance, and --

Second: So?! If the guy doesn’t have the stamina to both walk to work, and then do his job once he gets there, that chair -- even if it is bought on Medicare’s dime -- would let him stay employed.  Would it really be better for anyone if he lost his job? Would that save the state, city, or federal governments any money at all?

I seriously doubt it.

So really -- do not talk to me about “Disability Fraud.”

This is Matt Tringali. 

Matt Tringali is on 100% disability from the US Military. 

http://www.leatherneck.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-70400.html

In 2008, Tringali supposedly needed a power wheelchair. 

He seems to be walking fine now. 

He is funded 100% by taxpayers.  Funded to harass patients and workers and doctors. 

He has a nice big new red truck that he drives around the country. 

Federal agents from Washington raided Memphis Goodwill this week as part of a growing national fraud investigation into AbilityOne, the top taxpayer-funded program that provides work to disabled workers, according to inside sources.

More than two dozen agents from numerous federal agencies drove onto the Memphis Goodwill headquarters on Wednesday, sealing the back of the property containing the corporate headquarters, which administers millions of dollars in Federal contracts throughout the Memphis metropolitan area.

The fraud investigation into the government program was first detailed in an exclusive CNN story several weeks ago. AbilityOne and its management operation, SourceAmerica, are now under investigation by at least four separate Offices of Inspectors General, and also by the U.S. Department of Justice, according to inside sources.

AbilityOne and SourceAmerica, and many of the contracts they administer, are being investigated over allegations of financial fraud, operating illegal contracts, not employing the legally required number of disabled workers, bid-rigging, contract "steering," and possible racketeering, according to sources. The program is one of the nation's largest taxpayer contracts programs, awarding some $2.3 billion annually to contractors across the country.

Companies awarded the taxpayer-funded AbilityOne contracts are required by law to have 75% of their work performed by blind or severely disabled employees. But as many as half the contracts across the country may be operating illegally and not hiring enough disabled workers, inside sources tell CNN.

One former top officer has stated repeatedly in recorded conversations that the entire program is run like organized crime.

"That's the way they play the game. We are dealing with the Mafia here, the old SourceAmerica Mafia," said Jean Robinson, the former top attorney for SourceAmerica.

She described the contract-awarding process as a "sham" driven by insider influence and cronyism. Robinson was later fired and sued by SourceAmerica and has not replied to CNN for comment.

AbilityOne and SourceAmerica have denied wrongdoing in their operation and have issued numerous statements in recent weeks assuring their contractors and allies that there is no problem in the program. Officials in AbilityOne and SourceAmerica at first said they had no knowledge that any investigation was under way by the Justice Department. In recent weeks, the officials with SourceAmerica have confirmed the investigation is, in fact, ongoing.

Since 2010, Memphis Goodwill Industries has received more than $22 million in AbilityOne contracts to provide services such as janitorial work for the IRS and Public Buildings Service and to operate call centers for the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to a government database of federal contracts.

Memphis Goodwill continues to list job opportunities related to federal contracts on its website.

Goodwill offices are among the major contractors in the AbilityOne program. Goodwill offices across the country receive hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded contracts to conduct numerous operations ranging from sewing uniforms to conducting janitorial and cleaning services.

But the Goodwill operations that receive the contracts appear independent from state to state, and the contracts are awarded to the local offices to administer. Goodwill is only one of hundreds of contractors nationally that receive the AbilityOne contracts.

The AbilityOne program was first created with ambitious, altruistic goals by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress in 1938 to help give jobs to the blind.

The AbilityOne and SourceAmerica program have been sued multiple times in recent years by contractors who allege the bidding process to get the lucrative contracts is "rigged," and inside favoritism and "steering" determines where the taxpayers' money is awarded. Several of the lawsuits also allege that the contractors who get the taxpayers' money are not operating legally and are not hiring the required ratio of disabled workers. 

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/04/us/abilityone-investigation-update/index.html

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THE NEXT TIME A REPUBLCIAN TRIES TO SELL  YOU on why disability to individuals needs to be cut due to fraud - mention corporate fraud and why that’s never addressed.

Fraud Fest in D.C.

It seems that almost everyday there’s a report of yet another case of fraud against one or another Federal entitlement program. If it isn’t Medicare or Medicaid then it’s food stamps, unemployment or disability.

Federal entitlement programs have become a magnet for scammers, con artists and cheaters by the car load. Like bees to honey, they flock to them and cheat the American taxpayers out of…