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Abstract: 

In 1996, as part of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PL104-193), Congress restricted benefits for so-called fugitive felons in four programs, including the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. The rationale for this legislation is not hard to understand. After all, who would want to defend paying money out of the public treasury to people fleeing to avoid prosecution or confinement for their crimes? Before this law, these fugitive felons could still receive Social Security benefits, and the Congressional Budget Office estimated that they would be paid over $500 million over the next 10 years directly out of the Social Security trust funds. But, like many seemingly terrific ideas, this one illustrates the adage that “For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.” (H.L. Mencken (1880-1956). This article deals with the applicability of that adage to these circumstances, and how it may be applied or misapplied to the disabled.

Keywords: Social Security and fleeing felons; Mencken on solutions; paradox in enforcement; residual problems

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