Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin today started a new misleading attack against Sen. Obama -- that his tax plan would somehow harm "special needs trusts," which are long-term savings accounts for people with disabilities. Let's check the facts:
- Obama's plan will not raise taxes on any family earning less than $250,000 per year.
- A special needs trust earns interest, just like a savings account does. So if a person had a special needs trust of $5 million, that account could produce annual income of $250,000 and may in fact lead to higher taxes under Obama's plan. Do you have a family member with special needs who has $5 million in a special needs trust? If not, the Obama tax plan would have no impact on that account.
- What economic impact will the McCain-Palin plan have on children and adults with disabilities? To answer that question, consider the impact of freezing, reducing, or eliminating every federally supported benefit they currently receive -- Social Security, housing, education, and other support. Consider the impact of a health plan that does not require providers to cover pre-existing conditions like autism and Down Syndrome. Some analysts have predicted that as many as 20 million Americans could LOSE their existing health coverage under the McCain-Palin plan.
You will be hearing more McCain-Palin lies over the next 11 days -- their campaign has officially announced a new strategy to try to win votes by scaring parents with special needs kids. Are you more likely to vote for presidential candidates who turn away from visions and plans in order to try to scare you into voting for them? Apparently they think families dealing with special needs are so (a) stupid or (b) vulnerable they can be manipulated into believing outright lies.
4 comments:
I kept refreshing the blog page all morning to get your feedback on this issue after seeing Sarah Palin speak this morning. It really ruined my day, I called a friend and said, "Oh no, she's learned what IDEA is 11 days before the election."
One thing I did notice in the speech as well was when she was talking about the home for adults with down symdrome. She said this:
"Michael's parents, Tony and Kris George, are advocates for children with special needs in their community. They are thinking far ahead, in their own boy's life and in the lives of others. They named the center after their son. It's a public-private partnership. This welcoming place -- and so many others like it -- shows the good heart of America."
What stood out to me, something I have blogged about all over the place is her lack of vision. She uses words like "contribute" and "achievement" but then considers a 30 bed group home as the vision of the future for a child and calls that "thinking ahead".
Thank you for providing this information and doing the math. I check this blog daily and tell my friends as well.
Stephanie. you hit it right on the head! The McCain-Palin plans are a TROJAN MOOSE and would put us back in the dark ages of parents choosing to institutionalize their children with disabilities ----while using funds intended for special education to do so!!! We already have far too many of the 500,000 + foster children in the US living in group home, institutional and residential treatment settings without encouraging custodial care as the educational goal for children with disabilities as well!
CHILDREN have the right to Free and Appropriate Public School Education, not parents have the right to school voucher them into hiding and oblivion using the tax dollars urgently needed for the special education of all!
And Society has the Right, well established through Mandatory School Attendance Statutes, to oversee that EVERY CHILD receive quality education in that child's best interest, according to their abilities, not just acquiese to anything the parents might decide for the child, including institutional warehousing because of their disabilities (or perceived disabilities ).
Stephanie, You must work in a public school. Many students with IEP's do not receive an IEP that meets their individual needs. I am voting for McCain & look forward to more accountability in these public school, who do their best to keep the funding in the public school. Lets face it, public school aim for the middle, they are not equipped to deal with students with severe ie learning disabilities. Your comment has more to do with the teachers UNION!
I am not sure what about my comment made you think I work in a public school or am a part of a UNION. Perhaps you looked at my blog where I post the free trainings I do for parents who have children in early intervention and the parent support groups I host as a volunteer partnering with the schools. Maybe it was the part in my introduction about how we need to learn to depend on each other more beyond taking support from federal, state, or county services. Honest mistake.
I am a parent of a child with autism and I am a parent coach (much like supernanny except for kids with disabilities). I am in fact not allowed to advocate in school because the schools are (not)funded through IDEA to provide behavior support and it would be literally against the law for me to do so. All I can do is prep parents to be empowered and understand that they have to fight for high expectations.
You are right, I should be glad she learned what the IDEA is so Gov. Palin can hopefully understand that putting adults in group homes and calling people with disabilities "special blessings" is actually going backwards. The disability rights movement has moved so far beyond this way of thinking and ideally when she catches up with the movement she will be a strong voice for true independence not warehousing people in group homes, she will fight for legislature such as the community choice act that keeps kids at home with their families instead of growing up in nursing homes.
If you want to talk about UNIONS. It is the unions that represent the institutions and keeping people who have not committed crimes locked away.
I appreciate your response and I am glad you are voting. I voted for Barack Obama just today.
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