Truth-O-Meter Agrees with Biden: Not One Democrat Supports Romney-Ryan "Bipartisan" Plan for Medicare

If you watched the vice presidential debate, you may remember this exchange:

Ryan: "This is a [Medicare] plan that's bipartisan. It's a plan I put together with a prominent Democrat senator from Oregon."

Biden: "There's not one Democrat who endorses it."

Ryan: "Our partner is a Democrat from Oregon."

Biden: "And he said he does no longer support [it]."

They can't both be right. And politifact.com's Truth-O-Meter says Biden was exactly correct. Here's the explanation. That's not exactly an example of reaching across the aisle and building bipartisan consensus, as Ryan tried to suggest.

Education Debate Oct. 15: Watch It Live!

Education advisers to President Obama and Governor Romney will debate on education issues on Oct. 15 at 7:00 p.m. Eastern. The debate will be held at Teachers College at Columbia University in New York, and will be available through a live webcast. Register for the webcast.

The event is called "Taking the Election to School: Making Education a Focus of the 2012 Election" and will feature Jon Schnur (for Obama) and Phil Handy (for Romney). A panel discussion featuring education journalists and other experts will immediately follow the debate.

Get the speakers' bios and register to watch the live webcast.

Campaign Reps Square Off on Disability Issues

Unfortunately, President Obama and Governor Romney chose not to participate in the National Forum on Disability Issues. Instead, the campaigns were represented by Ted Kennedy Jr. (for the Obama campaign) and Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers (R-Wash.) (for the Romney campaign).

Read a summary by Jeff Gorman, "Surrogates Discuss Jobs, Education for People With Disabilities at National Forum," from The Mobility Resource.

While Kennedy focused on the protections that the government provides for families, Rep. Rodgers said the government has a "paternalistic" attitude toward people with disabilities and an attitude of 'can't,' not 'can.'"

Rep. Rodgers' comment reflects one of my criticisms of Secretary Arne Duncan's work on special education. Almost the only way he ever referenced special education was when he talked about giving students more opportunity to succeed -- to improve test scores, to give more children a chance to attend college. But my opinion is skewed by the fact that my own daughter is an example of someone who will fall through the cracks if the only focus is college preparation. What she and so many other students need -- and are legally entitled to -- is an education that gives them the skills they need to succeed in life, whether or not that means college.

If Secretary Duncan favored the "high achievers" and was a less effective advocate for the broad category of special education students, at least he hasn't argued for cutting government services for people with disabilities, which Governor Romney (and even more so, Rep. Ryan) advocate. While Rep. Rodgers understands many of these issues, as a mother of a child with Down syndrome, the word "paternalistic" is usually code for "cut services and let families fend for themselves."

And in many ways, that's what this election comes down to. As a society, do we want to fight for the rights and protections for all citizens, or do we believe in survival of the fittest?

What do you think of this debate?

After Debate, Still No Palin Plan for Special Needs

In last night's vice presidential debate, I was hoping for additional clarification about the candidates' positions, and I did in several areas, but not the one this blog focuses on. I've been saying for weeks that Gov. Palin has been too vague about being a "friend" to children with special needs. She hasn't addressed any specific plan in her numerous speeches, her handful of interviews, or any other forum. So what did we learn from her last night? Nothing new.

Repeating her vague listing of priorities, she said: "John McCain and I have had good conversations about where I would lead with his agenda. That is energy independence in America and reform of government over all, and then working with families of children with special needs. That's near and dear to my heart also."

In one of her comments about education, Gov. Palin contradicted her running mate when she said: "With education, America needs to be putting a lot more focus on that and our schools have got to be really ramped up in terms of the funding that they are deserving. Teachers needed to be paid more." Remember, McCain has proposed a spending freeze on all programs for education, including special education and new teachers. But he wants to tax your health benefits (if you're one of the 70 percent of Americans who get insurance through your job), while denying health coverage for anyone with a pre-existing condition, including children with autism and Down Syndrome.

Biden countered this way: "I hope we'll get back to education, because I don't know any government program that John is supporting, not early education, more money for it. The reason No Child Left Behind was left behind, the money was left behind, we didn't fund it."

Biden also stressed the need to fund education, even with the current economic challenges. "We cannot slow up on education, because that's the engine that is going to give us the economic growth and competitiveness that we need."

Here's CNN's transcript of the whole debate.

Will McCain Put His Money Where Palin's Mouth Is?

Gov. Palin has embellished her stump speech with a nice reference to the late Gov. Robert Casey (the pro-life Democratic governor of Pennsylvania), who, she says, "was asked once how society should treat the most vulnerable among us, such as children with special needs. He said it's simple. He said, you put them first in line."

That's a pretty good applause line. But what does she mean? And has she talked to her running mate about what it would take to "put them first in line"? In Friday night's debate, Sen. McCain proposed a spending freeze on every federal program except defense and veterans. The National Education Association quickly reacted by saying such a freeze "would create a No Child Left Behind funding gap of $15 billion and put a crunch on millions of special education students, low-income students, children living in poverty, and the hiring of future teachers."

So we know McCain's not going to put his money where her mouth is. But what about Gov. Casey, apparently Gov. Palin's new role model? He didn't just talk -- he backed up his words with government programs that helped people. As governor from 1987 to 1994, Casey created school-based child-care programs that provided full-day services and before- and after-school care programs for infants and preschoolers, including poor children. That meant that teen parents could stay in school and poor adults could work knowing their children were safe. He was a strong advocate for universal health care. He invested money in breast cancer awareness and screening and required HMOs to cover annual mammograms. Harvard University pediatrician T. Berry Brazelton called Casey's multidimensional health care programs for women and children "a model for the rest of the country."

As a footnote, Gov. Casey's son, Bob Casey, Jr., is now a senator representing Pennsylvania. And way back in March, he endorsed Sen. Obama for president.

So Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin, parents with children with special needs are STILL wondering: What will you DO to support families like ours? We can read Sen. Obama's plan for Americans with disabilities. When will you share YOUR plan to back up your words and promises?