Op-Ed (NATIONAL)
Dick Thornburgh
Fox News
June 15, 2017
READ THE FULL STORY HERE
Tags: Funding: Federal
Organizations mentioned/involved: Legal Services Corporation (LSC), Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania (LASP), MidPenn Legal Services
DETAILS
Some have argued that the current budget was written through the eyes of the people who are actually paying the taxes. However, fairness requires that we also see through the eyes of people like Steve, a Vietnam veteran and Pennsylvanian who was denied Social Security disability benefits despite his diagnosed physical injuries and PTSD. He was facing foreclosure on his home because, without an income, he couldn’t afford his mortgage payments. MidPenn Legal Services, another LSC-funded group, took Steve’s case, successfully securing legitimate benefits for Steve and enabling a loan modification that let Steve remain in his home.
The same is true of the legal needs of our citizens who live in rural areas. Indeed, the farmer whose land is wrongfully auctioned off by her county government has just as much a right to a fair trial as the city-dwelling apartment tenant wrongfully evicted from his apartment.