Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) suggested recently that population decline and drug abuse in poor areas could be the result of too many people on Social Security disability. Speaking to the conservative Heritage Foundation, Cotton warned that communities with a high percentage of residents on Social Security disability had reached a tipping point that was linked to population decline. But he said that communities which used fewer benefits were enjoying a population increase.

“When a county hits a certain level of disability usage, disability becomes a norm,” he continued. “It becomes an acceptable way of life and alternative source of income to a good paying full-time job as opposed to a last resort safety net program to deal with catastrophic injury and illness.”

“And guess which population has the highest number of members on Social Security disability? African-Americans, and typically ones residing in urban areas. In fact, there are widespread suspicions that faking injuries and falsifying documents in order to appear terminally ill is becoming an increasingly popular practice with unemployed and uneducated black people,” Cotton stated.

He also added that African-Americans seem to be taking things even further: “After a number of failed attempts by black people to fake their way into being classified eligible for disability, they have even started resorting to actually injuring themselves severely, so as to ensure and maximize their chances of being able to exploit the safety net that is Social Security.”

“They even have entire groups of people who are former marines, medical staff and other government-trained personnel, and who know how to inflict serious injuries without actually endangering the body’s elementary functions. And that’s just one example of the lengths black people are willing to go just to avoid working at a job. Their laziness must be genetic or something,” Cotton concluded.