How The Government Continues To Mistreat Disabled People
By Christopher Bartlett
Now admittedly the working poor have it bad, but there are a group of people who have it worse in this country as well. That is the people on disability. Some will think I am nuts on this one and that is fine. One of the things that makes it hard living on disability is the stigma surrounding it. That we live such an extravagant lifestyle.
The actual reality of it is that most of us on disability live on under $800.00 a month, not a week, a month. You have probably heard about us getting cost of living increases each year. Those are usually about $2-$3 a month if we are lucky. Heck, a cost of living increase at a fast food joint has been better in recent years since it amounts to like $40 a month. We don’t go up with the minimum wage though we go up with the cost of living and since that shouldn’t go super high with the minimum wage increase coming in Maine; I don’t expect a big increase in disability benefits.
Then there is the government constantly trying to take away programs from the disabled that actually help them or if not take them away alter them so that they don’t cost them as much but then aren’t as beneficial to those that need it. They promise one thing and it starts out that way then they change the rules and start doing it another way. Or they make it so providers have to push you out the door because you don’t meet the new standards.
The government talks about wanting to help those that need it, but more and more they are funding home services or services that just keep those with needs out of sight and out of mind. So let me remind them that this was tried in a way before 1981 and it failed because people spoke up then. What do you think will happen this time around with social media and cell phones and cameras everywhere when you try to make the past happen again?
We are not going back to how things were done. We are going forward. The disabled people have a right to a decent standard of living and they aren’t living at home with family like in the old days, so stop treating them like they are. Stop calculating it like they are. Redo the formula and start giving them what they need.
Stop putting wait lists everywhere for disabled people, because you refuse to pay or negotiate with companies to get a company that will do the job for your price. Another thing make sure when they do it for your price that they will do it the way you intended for it to be done and not suddenly, "oh well we have to do it this way for us to come in under budget." That is not what they claimed they could do for the price they gave. Stop allowing this.
Stop cutting programs that have scientific proof to work, or altering them because you don’t want to spend the extra money on them as they are. Instead you want to combine them with another program that has no scientific backing to safe yourself some money.
You treat disabled people like second class citizens, like after thoughts, though you claim not to. Then you wonder why people who are disabled snap so often. That is about as logical as putting a bull in a china closet and expecting the china to all be in one piece afterwards.
It’s like, "oh look we gave them some money and a few services and some things we agreed to; see they are doing just fine." They try to tuck us out of sight and out of mind and then when the homeless become too much of a cost burden, they try to mix us together creating further problems. Since they want us both out of sight and out of mind.
They seem to enjoy making us live in fear of us losing our benefits. Or even worse making them private so we have to live in fear day to day of having no benefits. Plus, you have to deal with talk in one circle or another about so and so who is on disability but shouldn’t be for whatever reason. Sometimes even getting told that you shouldn’t be on disability yourself.
Nevertheless, I am supposed to be grateful for what I get because I am in America and other countries wouldn’t do this for their citizens. Well you know, "I am in America" has been long blasted at me as the greatest country on the planet since as long as I can remember. So, excuse me if I look at other countries taking care of their poor and disabled and think we can do better than we are doing since we are supposed to be the greatest country in the world as well as the leader in the world.
Am I currently on disability? Yes, but I am working on getting off and will continue to do so even if suddenly things changed and became as good as a minimum wage job. That does not mean though that I think those who can’t get off disability should be stuck in the current conditions. By the way, the conditions that those on disability are on are the conditions our retirees are having to deal with as well. Except they also get discounts for things on top of it all. Think about that as you get older, as I have been this week.
