Next GOP cut victim: Disabled kids.

[SirNitram]

Link

Food safety, family planning, cancer research, and low-income housing—now add the Special Olympics to the long list of organizations and federal programs targeted for major funding cuts by congressional Republicans.

The House GOP's budget, which passed last month, takes a hatchet to programs for disabled kids and Special Olympics athletes. The proposed cuts could force the closure of at least one Special Olympics program, which is funded through the Department of Education. Dubbed Project UNIFY, the program serves more than 750,000 students in 43 states and draws from techniques used in Special Olympics training for activities in public schools.

The program includes sports teams that pair disabled athletes with nondisabled athletes; developmental activities for young children with disabilities; and anti-discrimination programs to combat bullying in schools. Special Olympics president and CEO Tim Shriver has said the program is at the forefront of a national movement to fight bias against the disabled and, in a recent interview on MSNBC, he denounced the GOP cuts: "It wasn't a haircut—it was a guillotine job for the programs for health and education for children with special needs."

The cuts would slash $8.1 million from the UNITY program. While the amount may seem nominal, it would deal a fatal blow to the nascent program, which began in 2008 under the Bush administration. "It would go away—there would be no alternative," says Dr. Stephen Corbin, senior vice president for community impact at Special Olympics International, the nonprofit organization that runs the athletic event for the disabled.

Corbin emphasizes that the Special Olympics has provided critical life skills to participants through the school-based program. Though only 10 percent of young adults with intellectual disabilities are employed, 52 percent of Special Olympics athletes have jobs. "It gives them much greater potential to take care of themselves as young adults and become contributing members of community, rather than become dependents, so to speak," Corbin says.

The Special Olympics has launched its own advocacy effort to defend the UNITY program and other efforts jeopardized by the cuts, bringing athletes from the Games to Capitol Hill this week. Blasting the House bill for "threat[ening] the life of critical Special Olympics programs," the organization also launched a Congressional lobbying drive among disability advocates to ward off the cuts.

Along with its Department of Education money, funding the group receives from the Centers for Disease Control is also at risk. The CDC funding is directed at a program that provides more than a million free health screenings for disabled athletes, who often have trouble getting appropriate medical care. "A person with intellectual disabilities might have to go to 50 physicians," says Corbin. "A lot of health professionals don't want these patients in their waiting rooms, fearing that it would make other patients uncomfortable. Our population is one of the neediest populations around."

Using the federal money to kick off the program, the Special Olympics receives donated medical care and supplies to treat Special Olympics athletes—saving money for patients that could be extremely expensive to treat otherwise. Though the program hasn't been singled out for elimination, Corbin warns that it, too, could be a casualty of the budget battle: "Without that seed funding, our program would dry up." And the spending reductions to the Special Olympics come on top of over $550 million in cuts to special education that are also in the House GOP budget.

It isn't the first time that legislators have taken aim at the Special Olympics in the name of fiscal austerity. While she served as Alaska's governor, Sarah Palin attempted to halve funding for the state's branch of the Special Olympics. (The proposal didn't pass muster, and the final budget actually included a slight increase in funding.) Other states facing budget crunches are now following suit: North Carolina's Democratic governor, Bev Purdue, cut off all funding to the nonprofit in the budget she submitted last month.

In the current budget battle, funding for the Special Olympics—and other programs focused on the most vulnerable Americans—have received little attention. That could make it all the easier for such cuts to slip past the Democrats, prompting advocates to plead with legislators to preserve what little funding they receive. "These are small numbers in the larger scheme of things," Shriver told MSNBC. "But they are big numbers when it comes to American values."

I have opinions on this, but I cannot express them terribly coherent. General gist of them: Frothing, roaring rage.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Fuckers! I'm neither an American nor a kid, but I am disabled, so my opinion stands. Of all the crazy shit to cut, why THIS?

[Vendetta]

Of all the crazy shit to cut, why THIS?

No strong political voice, can't fight back effectively.

It's quite simple, these kind of cuts are going to be aimed at the people who don't have the clout to fight them, hell, it doesn't even matter if the amount cut is trivial, the Republicans can show that they're Doing Something About The Deficit by making cuts somewhere.

[Lord MJ]

I wouldn't be so enraged if they cut Special Olympics, had they not extended tax cuts for the rich. If they had jacked up the wealthy's taxes and there was still a shortfall, I could see cutting special olympics as a perfectly valid move.

[Dalton]

Except that it'd do JACK SHIT to fix the budget. 8.1 million is peanuts. Worry more about trimming the multi-billion and trillion dollar problems.

[Akhlut]

Why cut Special Olympics when fucking corporations haven't been paying their goddamn taxes?

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/25/u ... eir-taxes/

Maybe we'd have some fucking cash in the coffers if some people opted to pay their fucking taxes!

It's infuriating that we have to watch services get slashed so General Electric doesn't have to pay $1.1 billion.

[Darth Fanboy]

Aside from the fact that this is not much money, the article stated that this program is helping the disabled get jobs. And here I thought these conservatives wanted to wean people off government funding?

Goddamn Ornery Pigfuckers

[PeZook]

Aside from the fact that this is not much money, the article stated that this program is helping the disabled get jobs. And here I thought these conservatives wanted to wean people off government funding?

Goddamn Ornery Pigfuckers

I don't think they have a coherent, logical ideology.

They want to make people self-sufficient, but won't use government assistance to help them become so.

They scream NO HANDOUTS, but support the military-industrial complex with boatloads of cash.

They claim to fight the deficit, yet won't tax.

They claim to be tough on crime, unless it's blatant financial crime

And so on.

[wautd]

why THIS?

Because everyone has to chip in and do their part.
And when I say everyone, I mean everyone except rich americans, especially the ones that actually caused the economic crisis and got richer of it.
Don't like it? Well then you're an freedom hating dirty commie liberal socialist!

[Ritterin Sophia]

Except that it'd do JACK SHIT to fix the budget. 8.1 million is peanuts. Worry more about trimming the multi-billion and trillion dollar problems.

Or we could do the fiscally responsible thing and eliminate the corporate tax loopholes that allow American companies like ExxonMobil who pay no taxes and get a tax refund despite making $170 billion in profits every year. Presto, $600 billion dollars.

[Stravo]

Obvious points aside what does it say about our priorities as a country and as a people that we're very willing to cut from the neediest members of our community, cut into our own healthcare coverage and just about any other program that is out there that supports and helps Americans before we would ever even consider raising taxes 2-3 percentage points on the highest income earners, or hell fuck it, across the board to raise revenue?

And I am no longer really that angry at the Republicans. Again, this is in their nature. We expect this, they advertise this to the heavens, NO ONE should be surprised that this is at the top of their agenda.

It's the people who vote for them that are at fault. They CHOSE this. They knew what they were getting into when they voted Republican. So to them I say we lay this at their feet. And don't think I'm just talking about Tea Partiers and Red Staters, the fact that Americans in general are not up in arms about record breaking profits for stock holders and a jobless recovery with the very public and ham fisted dismantling of labor unions and retirement benefits for working class being assaulted is shameful. This country was built on the ideals of the government needing to be beholden to the people, instead we have a people willing to take it in the ass over and over without a peep.

The biggest trick ever pulled was not the devil making people believe he no longer exists- it's the Right making working and middle class people vote against their own interests, and like it.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Then thank the God I gave up believing in that I'm not an American.

EDIT: I'l second Stravo on this one. Americans, it's supposed to be the government elected by the people, for the people and on behalf of the people. DON'T let the cunts get away with this!

[Serafina]

Then thank the God I gave up believing in that I'm not an American.

EDIT: I'l second Stravo on this one. Americans, it's supposed to be the government elected by the people, for the people and on behalf of the people. DON'T let the cunts get away with this!

Well, let me make a saying out of this:
If it is truly a government elected by the people, for the people and on behalf of the people - then the people are responsible for it.
At least those people who elected that part of the government. You can argue about the exact responsiblity, you can say that the Rebublicans lied or somesuch, but in the end that doesn't mean that the american people are not responsible for what's happening to them.
Or else, it is no longer a government elected by the people etc.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Incidentally, Serafina, that comment goes in my sig now. It's spot-on.

[Serafina]

Incidentally, Serafina, that comment goes in my sig now. It's spot-on.

Just as planned then
But i have to thank you for that, you gave me the idea with the "by the people..."-line, and it just expresses what i've been arguing a couple of times and what is a basic principle of democracy: If it actually is a democracy, the people are responsible for the actions of their government.

[Eternal_Freedom]

I tend to get quite eloquent when I'm hacked off at the yanks. I should do it more often

[Jawawithagun]

But but why would anybody want to work hard and try to become a millionaire if it's not for the greater tax benefits the richer you get?

[JME2]

I wouldn't be so enraged if they cut Special Olympics, had they not extended tax cuts for the rich. If they had jacked up the wealthy's taxes and there was still a shortfall, I could see cutting special olympics as a perfectly valid move.

I feel the same. God, I'm so sick of this shit.

[The Cooler King]

This is so fucked. I used to work for an organization that provided services for the mentally and developmentally-disabled. They NEED that sort of funding. My wife and I care for two such individuals; you should hear the fucking horror stories of what used to happen to them when they had to stay with their birth parents, when they didn't have any funding. And yet, I still know people who defend this sort of decision. I just can't understand that mindset.

[Simon_Jester]

At least those people who elected that part of the government. You can argue about the exact responsiblity, you can say that the Rebublicans lied or somesuch, but in the end that doesn't mean that the american people are not responsible for what's happening to them.
Or else, it is no longer a government elected by the people etc.

Yeah.

I will say this: in the midst of such a goddamn mess, there's enough blame to be spread around very widely.

I still want to think there's a turning point- a line that can be crossed which will actually trigger a popular revolt* against the sheer shittiness of American politics, against the false choice between a party that wants to gut the country to supply the oligarchs with sausage and a party that wants to stand by and let them. You see flickers of that, as in Wisconsin just now; the potential is sort of there... but my faith in the existence of the line, any line, that the American public won't stand by and watch the oligarchs cross isn't all that strong at the moment.

There's just no leadership for it, no political will to take an openly confrontational stance on the important issues. The people with political organization on the American left only use that kind of language when they're hitting the center-left up for money. And the kind of leadership that's needed doesn't seem to self-generate the way it might have done in a nobler era.

I am not some kind of political mastermind who knows how to start such a movement rolling; nor is anyone I know of. I wish that I did know someone.
______

*No this does not mean violent revolution I am not a flaming moron OK?

[Dalton]

Speaking as a cynic, I have no faith that any politician will be able to stem or turn the tide. My feelings are that the entire government is bought, sold and traded as a commodity by the ultra-rich.

[Simon_Jester]

Put it this way: the mechanism by which it could be done exists. At the moment, the mechanism is not being used for the purpose of fixing things. I share your doubt that anyone currently dominant within the American political system would try to use it to fix things.

What I still hope to see, and still think is viable if not necessarily likely, is that the sheer scale of dislocation caused by the American crisis will start reshuffling the political system. This has happened before, and when it does many of the great assumptions made about American politics in the previous era can cease to apply. But that event is, in all probability, years off. We will not see a serious populist-progressive revolt against the oligarchs immediately; it is virtually impossible we will see it in 2012, and it is highly unlikely that we will see it in 2014 or 2016 unless the Republicans manage to fuck things up very, very effectively and in very obvious ways.

However, I want to caution against too much cynicism. If/when someone who is actually trying to fix things makes a major push at doing so, the greatest risk they face is that a jaded progressive electorate will say "oh, yeah, you're just going to use our votes and then screw us by doing nothing like Obama" and ignore them.

If we ever want the country fixed, we cannot afford to do that. That is the ultimate act of shooting yourself in the foot- to assume that by definition anyone who says they want to fix things is lying, and therefore refuse to support them. By all means, check out their bona fides before placing much faith in them... but don't just ignore them.

[Darth Yan]

If this world were just everyone who passed this law would be eaten by komodo dragons, castrated and impaled in the ass zulu style

[Dalton]

If this world were just everyone who passed this law would be eaten by komodo dragons, castrated and impaled in the ass zulu style

Take your internet tough-guy bullshit and get the fuck out of this thread before I make you leave.

[UnderAGreySky]

I'm not American. I'm not disabled.

I'm not just appalled, I've got a feeling of revulsion for the American Republicans. With the latest round of proposals to cut funding for poor mothers and children, anti-abortion "pro-life" bullshit, the McCarthy-esque hearings by Chief Arsehole Pete King and now this, I'd be completely prejudiced against anyone who admitted they vote for Republicans at the state or the national level.

I've been in Britain for more than two years, and I haven't - not once - seen any rubbish like this here. I don't like Tory ideas much, especially the way they're going about the cuts. But the Republicans are sociopaths.