National Interest - US
'Adult Baby' in California Wins Right to Social Security Disability Checkshttp://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/10/20/adult-baby-in-california-wins-right-to-social-security-disability-checks/REDDING, Calif. -- A 30-year-old California man who wears diapers and lives as an “adult baby” can keep his $800-a-month Social Security disability checks, the agency ruled.
Stanley Thornton’s infantile lifestyle won him national attention after a National Geographic TV show revealed how he was spoon-fed and clad in baby clothes by his roommate and how he built furniture like oversized high chairs in his Redding, Calif., apartment.
The show prompted Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., to demand a probe of Thornton's Supplemental Security Income checks, the New York Post reported.
But in a letter to Thornton, the agency said, “We recently reviewed the evidence in your Social Security disability claim and find that your disability is continuing.”
A spokesman for Coburn told The Washington Times that the senator did not understand how "a grown man who is able to design and build adult-sized baby furniture is eligible for disability benefits."
"The problem is not with Mr. Thornton, per se, but with the politicians and bureaucrats who have coddled him," the spokesman added. "Disability fraud effectively steals from those who are truly disabled, while weakening the economy for everyone."
