KosAbility is a community diary series posted at 5 PM ET every Sunday and Wednesday by volunteer diarists. This is a gathering place for people who are living with disabilities, who love someone with a disability, or who want to know more about the issues surrounding this topic. There are two parts to each diary. First, a volunteer diarist will offer their specific knowledge and insight about a topic they know intimately. Then, readers are invited to comment on what they've read and or ask general questions about disabilities, share something they've learned, tell bad jokes, post photos, or rage about the unfairness of their situation. Our only rule is to be kind; trolls will be spayed or neutered.
Let me first say how happy I am to be writing my first diary for KosAbility! I had planned to write about traveling abroad and how frustrating though still rewarding it can be. I had planned to write about the adventure of traveling as a mobility-impaired visitor in different countries, and how to make the most of your trip. I had planned on writing about how frustrating it can be to feel like a foreigner in your own country, not knowing from state to state how accessibility issues are handled: like finding your car towed because the state you are visiting has revoked its recognition of your home state's disabled parking placard. But I just can't.
Follow below.
Instead, I am consumed with a frightening thought: What would the consequences be for the disabled and their families if the Ryan/Republican Budget is passed? Mitt Romney has promised to pursue it should he be elected President. Almost every GOP member of the House voted for it - and those who didn't didn't think it radical enough. It's important to mention that I spent most of my life as a rightward-leaning independent. I saw things this way for a number of reasons - which I'll go into another time - but mainly out of upbringing in a staunchly capital "R" Republican family. My grandfather and I were very close, and he would talk politics over long walks with me. But sometime in the 70's, my grandfather's Republican party took a hard right turn. And Ronald Reagan made the party a little less recognizable. Then came the Gingrich revolution, and another step to the right. The Bush years... a little less recognizable, still. But with the candidacy of Barack Obama came in a flood of hatred, panic, and a call for ideological purity. And what grew out of that - the 2010 GOP flood - has brought us to the doorstep of calamity. Moderation and thoughtfulness have been expelled from the GOP and replaced with Rand-ian fantasy and lunacy. The GOP of my heritage has been replaced with an ultra-conservative band of self-absorbed lemmings. The Ryan/Republican budget represents such an extreme remaking of our society that it would have been dismissed without a thought in years past. But in this era, it's called "serious," and covered as if it were a routine document, rather than the sociopathic result of a theory of life that calls the disabled and sick "takers" or "parasites."
If the Ryan/Republican budget were enacted, and the cuts are applied evenly, the lives of the disabled, the ill, and their families would be touched in some very real ways. Let's start with the top layer, which largely sits in the hands of the Supreme Court, with the elimination of the Affordable Care Act. If the ACA is repealed or eliminated by Congressional action, protections for those with preexisting conditions will be eliminated. Insurance pools for those who are awaiting coverage will disappear. Changes in healthcare system structure from "fee for service" to "healthy outcomes" will be halted. The so-called "doughnut hole" closure that has begun to take effect will be eliminated, raising prescription drug costs for our seniors. But that's not the only addition in costs to Medicare recipients. Medicare would be transformed to a voucher, or "premium support" model. Estimates are widely varying as to the effect this would have, but paired with the reductions that are spelled out - which lower the government contribution by 35% by 2050 - Medicare will spiral to an ugly death. It eliminates IPAB, which was created to keep costs in line. He makes up for the loss in savings by taking more money from seniors and the disabled. The Ryan/GOP budget will move Medicaid "back to the states," but only after generously slashing funding by the largest amount in history. The federal government pays between 50 and 73% of state's Medicaid costs. Slashing this funding, according to some estimates, will cost 19 million people coverage. Nineteen million of our neediest citizens. Of our poorest citizens. Of our sickest citizens.
For those that rely on advanced research to develop new treatment modalities, this budget is a punch in the gut. Funding for such areas as NIH and outside grants will disappear. Department of Health and Human Services? Who needs it. Education and training programs, vital to the lives of those with congenital disabilities... gone. With federal education funding gone, how can this country hope to grow the minds that will tackle such challenges as cures for cancer or Alzheimer's or Multiple Sclerosis? Money for transportation, which is vital not only to commerce and the able, but also to those with conditions that force them to rely on public transportation systems will dry up. Even Veteran's Administration funding is cut, betraying the commitment we have made to those who have worn the uniform on our behalf. I literally could go on all day.
And this is the best case scenario.
In Ryan's budget, by 2050, all discretionary spending will be less than 3.5% of the budget. Right now it's 12.5%. To get to its goal, deep cuts would need to be made, and any "saved" program will result in more cuts to programs for the poor. While seniors take a big hit in the budget, health services for the poor, such as Medicaid, take twice as big a cut in funding. SSDI would see major reforms and reshaping... and not in a way that strengthens it.
Often in this country, the voice of the disabled is ignored. But together, we must fight against this budget coming into law. We must educate our families and friends about what it will mean for us. Of what it will mean for them. We must ask them what kind of country they want to live in: one where we are all on our own, or one where we band together as a community. We must push back when the defenders of the budget deflect the question rather than answering truthfully about this plan. We must make our voices heard. We must support candidates who will reject this plan and others like it.
In Paul Ryan's utopia, the "makers" rid themselves of the "takers." In Paul Ryan's world, starving these programs of funding - and starving those who use food stamps of actual, you know, food - is character building. It's not just an unfortunate byproduct of a necessary move. It's a goal.
And what, you may ask, is the payoff of all of this? Certainly, it must be major deficit reduction! Um, no. It won't balance the budget until 2040, and will increase the debt in the meantime. The payoff is more tax cuts for the rich. Millionaires will receive an average $265,000. Two Hundred and Sixty Five THOUSAND Freaking Dollars! And the poor will go hungry. And the elderly without security. And the sick without healthcare.
God bless the Republican vision of America. Because God knows we'll need it.
Ezra Klein on Budget
Charlie Pierce on Ryan:
Transcript of President Obama speaking to AP Luncheon
CBPP on the Ryan/Republican Budget
CBPP: Medicare and the Ryan Budget