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What I tell people is, if you look like me and you hop out of your truck, you shouldnt be getting a disability check.Over half of the people on disability are either anxious or their back hurts join the club. Who doesnt get a little anxious for work and their back hurts? Everybody over 40 has a back pain. And I am not saying that there are not legitimately people who are disabled. But the people who arethemalingerersare the ones takingthe money away from the people who are paraplegic,quadriplegic. You know, we all know people who arehorrificallydisabled and cant work, but if you have able bodied people taking the money, then there is not enough money forthe people who are truly disabled.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), remarks in New Hampshire, Jan. 14, 2015

Were a little late to thecontroversy over Sen. Rand Pauls remarks on the Social Security disability insurance (DI) program that over half of the people on disability are either anxious or their back hurt but its an important issue that will have a central role in the political debates this year as the program faces a serious funding crunch. If Congress does not act soon to fix the programs financing, then the disability insurance trust fund will be depleted by 2016 and benefits would be cut 19 percent.

As can be seen from Pauls comments, he was being a bit jocular but he also framed his answer as a legitimate statistic that indicated there were many malingerers who are taking money from more deserving individuals. So what do the data show?

The Social Security Administration (SSA) runs the disability program, which is financed through a portion of the 12.4-percent Social Security payroll tax deducted from the paychecks of nearly every worker. As noted in The Fact Checkers Guide to Social Security, disability insurance is an integral part of Social Security; about 18.5 percent of Social Security beneficiaries are disabled workers and dependents.

Between 1980 and 2010, the number of disabled worker beneficiaries rose 187 percent. The reasons for the sudden rise in costs are complex, but the Social Security Chief Actuary Stephen C. Goss says a key factor is that the baby boom generation is aging and suddenly passing through the period of life (45-64) when disability spikes. In other words, the main part of Social Security will face financial stress when the baby boomers retire and the disability crisis is a harbinger.

Another factor is that women began working in greater numbers and thus began to qualify more often for disability insurance, though that trend was mitigated by the fact that the undocumented population also grew substantially in this period and illegal immigrantsdont qualify for coverage. The Great Recession, like all economic downturns, also boosted the number of beneficiaries.

In testimony before Congress, Goss noted that the spike in disability costs as a result of baby boomers hitting this milestone has largely passed. Restoring sustainable solvency for the DI program willnotrequire continually greater benefit cuts or revenue increases, he said, just a one-time fix. Heres a chart from his testimony:

So a large part of the increase in beneficiaries stems from demographic factors, not more people scamming the system. The Government Accountability Office, in a 2013 report on the $128 billion program, documented $1.29 billion in potential overpayments to 36,000 people in 2011 but these were people who were working and had earnings in excess of $1,000 a month. So its hard to call them malingerers. The number of people who received overpayments represented just 0.4 percent of beneficiaries, GAO said.

Indeed, it is not easy to qualify for disability. According to SSA, between 2003 and 2012, only 24 percent of disability applicants wereinitially granted benefits;an average of two and 11 percent were awarded benefits after either reconsideration or a hearing, respectively. Thus an average of 59 percent of applicants were denied benefits, even after appeals. This chart shows the trend over the ten-year period:

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Rand Pauls claim that over half of the people on ...

Senator Rand Paul speaks at a session titled "The Changing Politics of Foreign Policy" during the Wall Street Journal's CEO Council meeting in Washington December 2, 2014. REUTERS

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, who is considering his own run for the White House, poked fun at potential presidential contenders Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney on Facebook and Twitter over their meeting in Utah Thursday, joking that Bush gave Romney a "third time's a charm" bracelet, and Romney gave Bush a "common core" friendship band.

Their meeting had been planned for two weeks -- before Romney told donors he is considering another White House bid. It was described as a social, but it came at an awkward time, when each of them had begun to try to lock up the support of the same donors for a potential presidential run.

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Mitt Romney tops the latest CBS News poll, just days after hinting at another presidential bid. He's followed by Jeb Bush, Mike Huckabee, Sarah P...

The two, who had lunch in Salt Lake City Thursday, "did not reach an agreement...on how to reconcile their competing plans to run for the White House next year," the New York Times reported, citing advisers to Bush and Romney. And their lunch, the Times said, was "cordial" and "gentlemanly."

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Rand Paul pokes Romney and Bush

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., speaks with the media at the Peppermill restaurant Friday, Jan. 16, 2015, in Las Vegas. Paul is a possible Republican presidential candidate. (AP Photo/John Locher) more >

Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, took some shots via social media at a few possible fellow 2016 presidential contenders, imagining a gift exchange between 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at their meeting in Utah Thursday.

Mr. Paul tweeted that Mr. Bush apparently gave Mr. Romney, who also ran for president in 2008, a third times a charm bracelet.

He also tweeted a picture of a Common Core friendship band Mr. Romney was supposed to have given to Mr. Bush, who is a proponent of the federal education standards many conservatives dislike.

The note signed by Mr. Romney initially thanked Mr. Bush for his frienship in a post that has since been deleted, prompting Bush spokeswoman Kristy Campbell to fire back: You misspelled friendship. Maybe there is something to be said for higher standards?

Lay off. It was a common core post. We dont have to spell it right! Mr. Paul responded.

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Rand Paul tweaks Romney, Jeb Bush with 'gift exchange'

By John David Dyche WDRB Contributor

Speaking at the Heritage Action Conservative Policy Summit in Washington earlier this month, Kentucky's junior U.S. Senator and likely presidential candidate Rand Paul said, "I'm a judicial activist when it comes to Lochner. I'm a judicial activist when it comes to the New Deal."

In so doing, he joined a growing and impressive group of conservative and libertarian thinkers, including the influential columnist George Will, who embrace a concept long criticized by conservatives.

In the 1905 Lochner case, the Supreme Court struck down a state law limiting weekly hours of bakery employees. The high court held that the law violated "the liberty of the individual protected by the 14th Amendment of the Federal Constitution."

Lochner and its progeny limited the so-called "police powers" of states to interfere "with the general right of an individual to be free in his person and in his power to contract in relation to his own labor."

For the following three decades, this doctrine, referred to as "substantive due process," blocked not only lots of state laws regulating economic matters, but also federal laws proposed by Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of his New Deal response to the Great Depression.

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes famously dissented in Lochner. He wrote that the "Constitution is not intended to embody a particular economic theory," but was "made for people of fundamentally differing views."

Holmes contended that "the word liberty,' in the 14th Amendment, is perverted when it is held to prevent the natural outcome of a dominant opinion" unless "a rational and fair man" would find that the statute in question "would infringe fundamental principles as they have been understood by the traditions of our people and our law."

In its famous "Switch in Time That Saved Nine," the Supreme Court adopted the Holmes position, perhaps to prevent Roosevelt from "packing" that tribunal with new justices to end its obstruction of his progressive proposals. Even most conservative judges eventually came around to that way of thinking and repudiated Lochner and substantive due process as judicial activism.

Indeed, when this columnist was in law school in the 1980s, he had the opportunity to ask conservative Chief Justice William Rehnquist if Lochner-style substantive due process was fully, finally, and forever dead. Rehnquist replied that he thought it was.

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DYCHE | Rand Paul, Judicial Activist

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., made little mention of President Barack Obamas State of the Union address in his response to that speech this week, instead laying out a slate of his own policy plans and calling for new leadership in what could be viewed as more posturing in preparation for a presidential run.

Paul touched on foreign and domestic policy in his speech, drawing specific attention to economic policy.

He spoke about his desire for a constitutional requirement for a balanced budget and concerns about the impact that debt might have on the country.

I fear that this enormous burden of debt threatens our currency, Paul said. I fear that another 2008-style panic is possible, and I fear that this degree of debt is an imminent threat to our national security.

He said Americans want a bigger (economic) pie that current policies arent producing rather than seeing what exists redistributed.

Liberal elites fly over my small town, but they dont understand us, he said. They simply seek to impose their will upon us from what insurance we can buy, to what light bulbs we can use, to how we generate electricity.

Paul continued his efforts to reach out to the black community during his speech, talking about trips he has made to areas such a Ferguson, Mo., Detroit, Atlanta and Chicago.

I think peace will come when those of us who have enjoyed the American dream become aware of those who are missing out on the American dream, he said. The future of our country will be secure when we break down the wall that separates us from the other America.

Paul said American foreign policy has been over-militarized.

We are foolish to believe we will solve this puzzle, he said of the situation in the Middle East. We must defend ourselves and defend vital American interests, but we must not be deluded into believing that we can remake the Middle East in an image of Western democracy.

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Paul touts domestic, foreign policy