Brit Hume, at Fox News, cites an LA Times report that John McCain is receiving about $58K/year, tax-free, because he is 100% disabled from wounds sustained during the Vietnam war, including his time as a POW.
It's my understanding that 100% disability means that you are unable to work. The federal definition of disability, as reported in First Draft: 100%? Really?: "Total disability will be considered to exist when there is present any impairment of mind or body which is sufficient to render it impossible for the average person to follow a substantially gainful occupation;"
McCain himself has claimed that he's healthy enough to hike the Grand Canyon. A spokesman for McCain, senior adviser Mark Salter, reiterated that the senator is entitled to his pension. "Tortured for his country -- that is how he acquired his disability," Salter said.
So, he's in good health, even though he's 100% disabled. If a truck driver who was receiving a disability payment was seen hiking the Grand Canyon, how long do think it would be before the disability claim was reviewed and then overturned.
If he gets elected, he won't be the first president to be disabled when elected or serving. However, I do believe he WILL be the first receiving federal disability payments during that time.
ReplyDeleteJust something wrong with that.