The Organizers Forum of the National Disability Leadership Alliance just held an educational call about the harms and threats to people with disabilities (and seniors) in the tax bill. As usual, the NDLA website will carry a recording and transcript of the call as soon as possible.
Shortly after the call, the U.S. House passed the latest version of the bill and sent it back to the Senate for its vote. Then, as if to bolster my spirits, I read an op-ed from Senator Bob Casey and former Governor Tom Ridge focused squarely on the negative disability impact of this bill. From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and titled Bob Casey and Tom Ridge: Don’t disempower fellow citizens – Americans with disabilities deserve a chance to work and live in their communities, it begins:
We are two Pennsylvanians, members of two different political parties, but with a number of principles we whole-heartedly agree upon. Among them: Government should empower its citizens; political leaders should be servants to those who elect them; those who govern must be responsible stewards of public monies; and government should expand people’s freedom and enhance their right to self-determination, providing the means to take advantage of the great opportunities our state and country provide.
All of these principles are true and necessary for the trust and confidence of Pennsylvanians and Americans, but the last one is especially true for those with disabilities. Whether they are born with a disability or acquire it from disease, accident, age, or service to our country, our government should ensure that supports and services are in place so that citizens who have a disability are able to go to school, earn a living, live independently, and be full contributors to our communities.
That is why the two of us are concerned about the tax bill that was reported out of the congressional conference committee on Friday and will now work its way to a final vote in the Senate and House of Representatives.
To read the whole opinion piece, please go HERE. They specifically discuss concerns about future cuts to Medicaid home care that keeps us, seniors and disabled people, out of dangerous and costly institutions.
I used to hear that bills harming programs like Medicare, i.e. seniors, were “the third rail,” not to be touched if you want to be re-elected. But Medicare cuts are in the bill, so it appears that we need to remind them.