To: i-node who wrote (674488 ) 9/20/2012 8:20:05 AM From: Alighieri Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 1584598 As I previously pointed out, the number of people on Disability has skyrocketed under Obama. You think all these people were just suddenly "disabled"? Of course not. They're gaming a system which is a sitting target. This is a trend that has been going on for decades and went on under W as well...look at the last year of Bush's tenure for an indicator...the analysis shows that the state of the economy plays a role in it. It also shows that the rules were changed in 1984, reagan years and that changes in demographics also affect the numbers...you can see the increase in trend soon after the rules were changed...I'd also be willing to bet you that those who take advantage of this program are well distributed between obama and romney supporters....so again what's your point relative to the election and Romney's comments? Al To be sure, disability rolls have grown steadily as a share of the workforce since the 1990s (see nearby chart). The main causes of this broader trend, according to a study by economists David Autor and Mark Duggan , are the loosening of eligibility rules by Congress in 1984, the rise in disability benefits relative to wages, and the fact that more women have entered the workforce, making them eligible for disability. Their research found that the aging of the population has contributed only modestly to the program's growth. But the big factor in the recent surge is the slow pace of the economic recovery after the severe recession. That has kept the unemployment rate above 8% and created an enormous pool of long-term unemployed and discouraged workers. More than 5 million people have been jobless for 27 weeks or more, nearly twice the previous high set in 1983, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics .news.investors.com