Bipartisan bill to widen federal help for disabled

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By HOPE YEN

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is poised to allow Americans with disabilities to open tax-sheltered bank accounts to pay for certain long-term expenses — the broadest legislation to help the disabled in a quarter-century.

The House was set to vote Wednesday on the bill, called the Achieving a Better Life Experience Act, which stands out in a bitterly divided Congress for its wide-ranging support. First introduced in 2006, the legislation now lists an overwhelming 85 percent of Congress as co-sponsors, even after a conservative group criticized it as "decisive step in expanding the welfare state."

In the Senate, where Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are co-sponsors, the bill was expected to move quickly in the lame-duck session once the House acts. It would be the first time that Congress passed major legislation for the disabled since the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act.

"This levels the playing field for people less fortunate than we are," said Rep. Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla., the bill's lead House sponsor. "And it demonstrates we can work together when it's something that affects so many people."

FULL story at link.



Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., accompanied by Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, speaks with reporters following a closed-door policy meeting at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2014. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20141203/us-congress-disability-assistance-1fa1329372.html

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

1. Well, this is a good bill

but how many of our seriously disabled don't have enough money to put in a bank account?

[jwirr]

8. That was my question. I worked as a social worker with this group and not one single one would get

a thing from this bill. They all qualified for Medicaid/Medicare and eventually Social Security. Before I supported this bill I want to know more. Who qualifies? What is it going to be used for?

[Robbins]

2. Problem Is

Disabled will be hurt by cutting food stamps,SSI,Medicaid,and housing & energy assistance which GOP wants to do.

[damyank913]

17. I agree, however...

... I also think that they're planning to take away many tax credits that appear in the 1040 tax forms. Especially on the schedule "A". This way they can say that they reworked the tax code and reduced entitlements while still "caring" for the neediest among us.

[My Good Babushka]

3. Most disabled people

don't have any money to save, and aren't able to generate enough income for this to be of any benefit. It will most likely be abused as another tax shelter for people with ample resources to hide money.

[LiberalArkie]

4. Think of the Koch brothers with a cane.

[raouldukelives]

12. Yep. But will be heralded as a great triumph for the least among us. nt

[Hugin]

5. Excellent point.

Sad, but, true.

[CreekDog]

14. Not true

Poverty is much, much higher among the severely disabled.

But to say that all the disabled are poor and in poverty is ignoring all the many, many disabled who aren't.

[My Good Babushka]

15. I never said "all the disabled are poor"

In the United States, 72 percent of women with disabilities live below the poverty line. In the United States, 14.3 of a projected 48.9 million people with disabilities were employed, with two-thirds of those unemployed reporting that they were unable to find work. I said "most" and the statistics bear that out. Disabled people are more likely to be employed by charity organizations that sometimes pay pennies per hour, hardly enough to be sustaining jobs. Some disabled people are lucky enough to remain in the care of parents with good paying jobs. As those parents die, a great many of the disabled end up in poverty. I said "a great many" not "all". I never said "all", but the people who will be helped by this legislation is a vanishingly small percentage, and the likelihood that it will be abused by the affluent is high.

[CreekDog]

16. And why shouldn't those disabled who need to save for health care expenses

be allowed to do so tax free?

remember, the disabled who work, often have significant expenses to simply keep working, related to their conditions.

[My Good Babushka]

18. I never said they shouldn't be able to

I am critical because it leaves a large segment of the disabled in the same lousy predicament, and because the potential for abuse is extraordinarily high.

[FailureToCommunicate]

6. Bipartisian support is a good -and so rare- thing. The ADA would not have passed without

strong support by Republicans Bob Dole, John McCain, Richard Thornburgh, Justin Dart, Sandra Parrino, Evan Kemp, C. Boyden Gray, and of course President GHW Bush. (In the iconic photo of the signing of the ADA, the lone Democrat on the stage was Reverend Harold Wilke)

Of course 20 years later Republicans like Kansas Senator Jerry Moran helped shoot down Congress ratifing an international treaty expanding the rights of people with disabilities worldwide, even as Bob Dole sat there in front of them in his wheelchair. Their argument? One was that then 'The U.N. would have control over your son or daughter if they happen to wear glasses' !! (I'm not making this up)

http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2013/03/23/the-story-washington-gridlock-seen-through-eyes-bob-dole/bicDzPfwy1ta6SgirmDRQP/story.html


Thanks for your posting Omaha Steve.

-F2C

[turbinetree]

7. Austerity 2.0

Just think, in less than four weeks we get the Paul Ryan budget plan, oh boy, this bill will get gutted right along with other social programs that HUMAN BEINGS have been paying into since they were born or able to work based on the Paul Ryan Ayn Rand concept of you have to fend for yourself to the corporate master, so screw you.
And just think to top it all off we have the disintegration of the SNAP, unemployment insurance payments, 18 million without jobs, 54 million HUMAN BEINGS going hungry in this country, no jobs bills have been passed in who knows how long, spreading of fear and hate, attacking the Department of Education, EPA, TSA, Immigration, anything that basically HUMAN BEING NEED to live clean water, air, food.
And finally lets not forget the 3 TRILLION that was put on a credit card to fund a war, and with ironic hypocrisy how many of these disabled are vets, that have been waiting for this health care system?
And lets not forget 25 BILLION in government shut down.
Then just to add more hypocrisy of outright disdain we are having right wing state laws being passed that if you have, solar power on your home or business, which you may use to charge your mobile device such as a wheel chair, your getting a user fee for something that is basically FREE because the polluters of coal and gas are pissed off about wind and solar, and then we have a who's who in this do nothing Congress, and the WHO of doing nothing except having been sitting on there hands since 2006 talk about hypocrisy.
Then the DO NOTHINGS in CONGRESS have been making 174,000 a year and if you are in the leadership (DOING NOTHING) position during this time you were making over 193,000 and 225,000

[jwirr]

10. Yes, a lot of things that have happened are bad but this next congress puts the fear of the devil

in my heart.

[angrychair]

9. what.a.joke.

Not worth the paper its written on. Secondly, and more importantly, if ANY bill has wide-spread rethug support or was written by a rethug you better be looking for the shank that is about to be buried in you kidney. NO republican gives a rat's ass about anyone but the 1% and/or themselves (whichever comes first).
There is a hook somewhere. No rethug sponsors a bill that would not put money in their pockets or take it out of the pockets of the poor and middle class...or ideally both.

[jwirr]

11. What I am afraid they mean to do is use the money from some other program (Medicare) to put in

that private account thus limiting the amount that can go toward their care. This probably has two goals - limiting the amount of care that they can get and putting the money they already get into a Wall Street account.

I for one am going to contact Harry Reid and ask him some questions.

[deurbano]

13. My daughter would like the ability to marry and work without losing much needed benefits.

She has to stay "poor" for the benefits (especially medical benefits and attendant care) she needs, and there are so many hoops to jump through that paid work is not worth it. (The "PASS Plan": OMG.) She majored in Social Welfare at Cal, but most jobs (if she could find one) aren't worth what she would lose.

My daughter is quadriplegic, with a speech disability as a result of cerebral palsy (from birth), and she also has to periodically prove that she is still disabled! There is a category of people with disabilities who are not going to "recover" (especially, if they never had something to recover in the first place), so it seems like a waste of time and resources.

And she would like marriage equality, too-- which for her, means the right to marry without the spouse's income causing her to lose the benefits she needs.