In the twelve-month stretch from October 2022 through September 2023, 30,000 people died while waiting for federal disability determinations, according to Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley. Martha asked Harris what she would do as president for people, like herself, who are waiting for disability decisions while in desperate need of health insurance.
Delays in those decisions, driven in part by understaffing and a Covid-related rise in disability rates, have driven the typical wait time from four months in 2019 to seven months today, often coupled with the need to appeal an initial rejection, which can take years. The processing times represent a mounting crisis for the more than 1 million Americans who apply for disability in a given year.
are “Democrats” but may as well be Republican, like Joe Manchin.
IIRC, Manchin previously announced that he isn’t going to run again.
If he weren’t fairly close to Republican positions, he probably wouldn’t even be in office now; during the time that he was in politics, West Virginia shifted from being a very blue state to being a very red state. I’d argue that that’s mostly a function of party realignment than changes inside West Virginia, but it doesn’t matter much from the standpoint of a politician’s electoral viability, as the brand still has an impact.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Manchin
As of 2024, Manchin represents what is by a significant margin the most Republican-leaning constituency of any Democrat or independent in Congress.
Manchin has called himself a “centrist, moderate, conservative Democrat” and is generally regarded as the Senate Democratic caucus’ most conservative member.
Hmm. Apparently – hadn’t heard of this until reading this – he’s also no longer a Democrat, re-registered as an independent. The brand probably became too much of a political liability.
He became the state’s senior U.S. senator when Jay Rockefeller left office in 2015 and was West Virginia’s only congressional Democrat until 2024, when he registered as an independent.
EDIT: And it’s not just that all West Virginia’s federal representatives except him are Republican. Here’s the current state Senate and House composition, to give an idea, red showing Republican and blue Democrat. Not easy to be elected as a Democrat in West Virginia in 2024.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia_Legislature
EDIT2: Yeah, he announced back in 2023 that he’s not seeking re-election.
