Today I'm going to trawl through the major Presidential candidates' websites, searching for each candidate's viewpoint on disability. Wish me luck.
As an American citizen, it's my duty to be informed, at least in brief, about the current issues. As an autistic American citizen, disability issues are of some concern to me, not simply because they might impact me but because they absolutely will impact the parents, educators, professionals, and fellow autistic people I serve. Up 'til now, I've mainly been focused on my preferred political party, but for the sake of this article, I'll also take a look at the websites and stated policies of the other party candidates, and do my best to provide that information in an unbiased way. I will also let you know my bias, because while I'm going to try to be objective, I'm only human.
This coming election is... concerning to me. We have two serious political outliers (at least to today's politics: Trump and Sanders), and a few closer-to-middle-ground candidates. The Republican party has a rash of candidates, which doesn't bode well for party solidarity when election time rolls around. More than that, though, the Republican party has kind of gone off the rails from what I understand it used to be.
The Difference Between Parties
So far as I can tell, the major difference between the Democrat and Republican parties is philosophical. Democrats believe in supporting the people first: using social programs to improve the lives of the poor and the disabled, and getting as many people jobs as possible, so that they can work and earn their living. By strengthening the people, Democrats (so far as I can tell) believe the economy and the country itself will be strengthened. Republicans, on the other hand, believe in supporting businesses. Businesses employ people; they're the primary way for people to support themselves and their loved ones. Prop up businesses, and you prop up the economy, which benefits everyone. Or, in very brief: "trickle-up" versus "trickle-down" economic theory.
My Bias
US policy, so far as I can tell, has been mainly of the trickle-down, or businesses first, mentality. This has not, in my opinion, done a lot for the disabled community, the elderly, and the poor. So as you can guess, I favor the Democrat party. I think trickle-down theory has had its chance, and it just doesn't work for the poor, the disabled, and the elderly. The biggest companies of the US today are moving themselves right off American soil, evading taxes, and treating their workers like machines rather than people. People right out of high school and college are having to take minimum wage jobs to pay off their staggeringly high education debts or try to support themselves and their families. Because those are the only jobs available. They're not being given anything close to adequate health care despite President Obama's best efforts. This, in my opinion, is not okay.
Candidates Selected
We're only two primaries in, so my choices of Republican candidates may not be flawless, but I opted to take a look at Trump, Rubio, and Cruz based on their numbers of delegates won thus far. There are only two Democratic candidates left, so I won't need to prune them. I'll be taking each candidate's website and information at face value, since further speculation on my part would either be biased or uneducated (or both).
Ted Cruz
I can't find anything specifically from his site about disabilities, but I did find something on healthcare. According to his website, he favors repealing Obamacare post-haste. That would include the expanded Medicaid programs that presently allow several of my friends and acquaintances to actually have healthcare. Their jobs don't provide it, and private plans are far outside their budgets. Cruz, it seems, would rather expand the private insurance market across state lines and somehow try to make private insurance affordable. Having scouted out my own insurance plans recently, I'm not going to hold my breath, but anything is possible, I suppose.
He seems to be against same-sex marriage, pro-life, and anti-Planned Parenthood. Each of those puts several of my friends and acquaintances out in the cold. Cruz' strongest emphasis seems to be on the importance of the family. So a life with him as President might involve strengthening the nuclear family as a whole. The problem, for a lot of disabled people, is that our parents won't live forever. If there's a sibling able to take care of the disabled person, that's one thing, but that's not always the case. It seems like the autistic community and other communities would be left to fend for themselves under Cruz.
Marco Rubio
Things might be a little less bleak under Rubio. He mentions strengthening Medicare, on account of his mother and other senior citizens. Like Cruz, he wants to repeal Obamacare. Unlike Cruz, his website says every American should receive a refundable tax credit that can be used to purchase insurance. If that happened, my friends and I might be able to afford private health care.
Rubio also targets education debt. Rather than continue on with the current state of affairs, he proposes a single, income-based repayment method for federal student loans. That won't help my fiance Chris, since some of his loans aren't federal student loans, but it might help future students. Rubio also says he wants to increase the hiring of non-degree holding workers, which would be excellent news for several of my friends who haven't made it through college.
Finally, Rubio seems to be promoting a tax credit of $2,500 per child. I'm not sure how much an extra $2,500 would help a working poor family, but it's certainly better than nothing.
Hilary Clinton
Taking a break from the Republican candidates for a moment, let's look at former Senator, Secretary of State, and First Lady Clinton. Unsurprisingly for a Democrat, she specifically calls out the disabled population as one that matters. She seems to focus on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and riding the good that law did. She doesn't promise any specifics about how she's going to do that, but I haven't followed every debate, so perhaps she's expanded on that somewhere. Her site is extensive on her various stances on issues beyond that.
Clinton insists higher education is important to our country, and wants to refinance existing student loan debt, make public colleges tuition and books free, and institute some kind of monitoring system for colleges and their costs. Students will need to work 10 hours/week in addition to their studies. I'm all for reduced tuition, but in retrospect I'm not sure I could have pulled off a 10 hour/week job in addition to my classes. Some semesters I barely pulled off the finals and final projects in time. Adding transportation time and the extra time spent working might have been fatal to my graduation. Granted, there are some jobs available right on campuses, but there are only so many of those, and I don't interview well. In any case, making it easier to get higher education is definitely a good thing for the people I serve. State colleges, with their seas of people and large class sizes, are not always the best environments for people on the autism spectrum. But I'd take that over no possibility of college at all.
Clinton defends Obamacare. She notes that out-of-pocket costs, like copays and deductibles, are rising, and says she'll work against that trend. While I'm not entirely crazy about every aspect of Obamacare, the program itself does benefit myself and other Americans like me.
Donald Trump
I would, in all honestly, much rather have avoided even mentioning Trump. Unfortunately for my sanity, he's got the most delegates right now, which means I really shouldn't ignore him. His website is pretty sparse on his positions, but I'll do my best to find what applies.
His tax plan has some applications for the poorer and disabled communities. According to his site, anyone singly earning less than $25,000 per year or any couple earning less than $50,000 a year simply doesn't pay income taxes. That covers a number of my friends on and off the autism spectrum, so that's a help, even if it doesn't directly add anything to the social programs.
Trump's site also talks about stopping countries from sending their jobs overseas. While that won't directly have an impact on the autistic unemployment rate, the availability of more jobs in the US would be good.
Beyond that I have absolutely nothing positive to say about Trump. I, personally, believe he is the worst possible candidate for President. He's repeatedly demonstrated extremely poor behavior (sexism, bigotry, egotism) and routinely spouts vast quantities of lies. I do not want to live in a US with him as President, because I see him as a bigoted, self-righteous loose cannon that would just as soon mock me and ship my neighbors out of the country as help me achieve my potential as a person.
Bernie Sanders
So now we come to the other end of the political spectrum. Sanders' site is even more extensive on his viewpoints than Clinton's, which is an achievement.
Sanders, of all the candidates, strikes me as the most thoughtful toward the autism community and other minorities. There's a page with a number of specifics on his website. He wants to expand the educational opportunities for adults with disabilities by further funding an existing law (IDEA) and expanding on vocational education programs. He also wants to increase the existence of resource centers for aging and adult disabled people. This is not one of his more well-fleshed out policies (though more fleshed out than Clinton's), but it does have specific ideas that sound good in theory.
Like Clinton, Sanders wants to make public college tuition free. Also like Clinton, Sanders would like to let people refinances their student loans. I've covered why this is generally a good idea for people like myself, and people like my fiance.
Senator Sanders is also pushing the $15/hr minimum wage. I suspect this policy seems ridiculous to older voters, who recall minimum wage as a thing to keep our teenagers from being taken advantage of. Unfortunately, as I mentioned in the intro, that is no longer accurate. Minimum wage, with both parents working, is now what supports many of our working poor. A higher minimum wage would hopefully do good things for letting myself and my friends on the spectrum support ourselves.
On healthcare, Sanders' page is a series of quotes and infographics. But it summarizes to that Obamacare isn't working well enough, and a single-payer system would be better. So he wants to expand Medicare to everyone. I personally don't know how well that would work, but apparently it worked pretty well for Britain and Canada. I'd just be happy if I didn't have to keep applying every year for varying benefits and worrying about whether I'll be able to pay for it.
Finally, one of the Senator's biggest issues is the wealth disparity in the US. His numbers aren't always the most accurate, but the general concepts are unfortunately true enough. In the US today, the rich become richer and the poor become poorer. The statistics, unfortunately, back that up. For the autism community, insurances often don't pay for therapies, treatments, or social groups that we badly need. That means we pay for those out of our own (shallow, since most of us aren't employed) pockets, or don't go at all. That's not okay. We need understanding and help to be productive members of society.
In The End
Of all the candidates I've reviewed, I'd feel the most comfortable with the future under Senator Sanders. I can't honestly say I feel any of the Republican candidates care much for the plight of the disabled and autistic communities, based on their websites and espoused ideals. This is in distressing contrast to the Christian faith they claim, where Jesus specifically called his followers to feed and clothe the poor, and care for the sick and injured.
I think either Clinton or Sanders would probably do the job okay, but Sanders seems far more focused on uplifting and empowering the small people, like myself. The fact that he goes into specific ideas on his website, rather than broader, ambiguous statements, helps solidify that difference in my mind.
Whatever your particular political bent, though, please do vote in your primaries and the general election. America needs you.
As an American citizen, it's my duty to be informed, at least in brief, about the current issues. As an autistic American citizen, disability issues are of some concern to me, not simply because they might impact me but because they absolutely will impact the parents, educators, professionals, and fellow autistic people I serve. Up 'til now, I've mainly been focused on my preferred political party, but for the sake of this article, I'll also take a look at the websites and stated policies of the other party candidates, and do my best to provide that information in an unbiased way. I will also let you know my bias, because while I'm going to try to be objective, I'm only human.
This coming election is... concerning to me. We have two serious political outliers (at least to today's politics: Trump and Sanders), and a few closer-to-middle-ground candidates. The Republican party has a rash of candidates, which doesn't bode well for party solidarity when election time rolls around. More than that, though, the Republican party has kind of gone off the rails from what I understand it used to be.
The Difference Between Parties
So far as I can tell, the major difference between the Democrat and Republican parties is philosophical. Democrats believe in supporting the people first: using social programs to improve the lives of the poor and the disabled, and getting as many people jobs as possible, so that they can work and earn their living. By strengthening the people, Democrats (so far as I can tell) believe the economy and the country itself will be strengthened. Republicans, on the other hand, believe in supporting businesses. Businesses employ people; they're the primary way for people to support themselves and their loved ones. Prop up businesses, and you prop up the economy, which benefits everyone. Or, in very brief: "trickle-up" versus "trickle-down" economic theory.
My Bias
US policy, so far as I can tell, has been mainly of the trickle-down, or businesses first, mentality. This has not, in my opinion, done a lot for the disabled community, the elderly, and the poor. So as you can guess, I favor the Democrat party. I think trickle-down theory has had its chance, and it just doesn't work for the poor, the disabled, and the elderly. The biggest companies of the US today are moving themselves right off American soil, evading taxes, and treating their workers like machines rather than people. People right out of high school and college are having to take minimum wage jobs to pay off their staggeringly high education debts or try to support themselves and their families. Because those are the only jobs available. They're not being given anything close to adequate health care despite President Obama's best efforts. This, in my opinion, is not okay.
Candidates Selected
We're only two primaries in, so my choices of Republican candidates may not be flawless, but I opted to take a look at Trump, Rubio, and Cruz based on their numbers of delegates won thus far. There are only two Democratic candidates left, so I won't need to prune them. I'll be taking each candidate's website and information at face value, since further speculation on my part would either be biased or uneducated (or both).
Ted Cruz
I can't find anything specifically from his site about disabilities, but I did find something on healthcare. According to his website, he favors repealing Obamacare post-haste. That would include the expanded Medicaid programs that presently allow several of my friends and acquaintances to actually have healthcare. Their jobs don't provide it, and private plans are far outside their budgets. Cruz, it seems, would rather expand the private insurance market across state lines and somehow try to make private insurance affordable. Having scouted out my own insurance plans recently, I'm not going to hold my breath, but anything is possible, I suppose.
He seems to be against same-sex marriage, pro-life, and anti-Planned Parenthood. Each of those puts several of my friends and acquaintances out in the cold. Cruz' strongest emphasis seems to be on the importance of the family. So a life with him as President might involve strengthening the nuclear family as a whole. The problem, for a lot of disabled people, is that our parents won't live forever. If there's a sibling able to take care of the disabled person, that's one thing, but that's not always the case. It seems like the autistic community and other communities would be left to fend for themselves under Cruz.
Marco Rubio
Things might be a little less bleak under Rubio. He mentions strengthening Medicare, on account of his mother and other senior citizens. Like Cruz, he wants to repeal Obamacare. Unlike Cruz, his website says every American should receive a refundable tax credit that can be used to purchase insurance. If that happened, my friends and I might be able to afford private health care.
Rubio also targets education debt. Rather than continue on with the current state of affairs, he proposes a single, income-based repayment method for federal student loans. That won't help my fiance Chris, since some of his loans aren't federal student loans, but it might help future students. Rubio also says he wants to increase the hiring of non-degree holding workers, which would be excellent news for several of my friends who haven't made it through college.
Finally, Rubio seems to be promoting a tax credit of $2,500 per child. I'm not sure how much an extra $2,500 would help a working poor family, but it's certainly better than nothing.
Hilary Clinton
Taking a break from the Republican candidates for a moment, let's look at former Senator, Secretary of State, and First Lady Clinton. Unsurprisingly for a Democrat, she specifically calls out the disabled population as one that matters. She seems to focus on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and riding the good that law did. She doesn't promise any specifics about how she's going to do that, but I haven't followed every debate, so perhaps she's expanded on that somewhere. Her site is extensive on her various stances on issues beyond that.
Clinton insists higher education is important to our country, and wants to refinance existing student loan debt, make public colleges tuition and books free, and institute some kind of monitoring system for colleges and their costs. Students will need to work 10 hours/week in addition to their studies. I'm all for reduced tuition, but in retrospect I'm not sure I could have pulled off a 10 hour/week job in addition to my classes. Some semesters I barely pulled off the finals and final projects in time. Adding transportation time and the extra time spent working might have been fatal to my graduation. Granted, there are some jobs available right on campuses, but there are only so many of those, and I don't interview well. In any case, making it easier to get higher education is definitely a good thing for the people I serve. State colleges, with their seas of people and large class sizes, are not always the best environments for people on the autism spectrum. But I'd take that over no possibility of college at all.
Clinton defends Obamacare. She notes that out-of-pocket costs, like copays and deductibles, are rising, and says she'll work against that trend. While I'm not entirely crazy about every aspect of Obamacare, the program itself does benefit myself and other Americans like me.
Donald Trump
I would, in all honestly, much rather have avoided even mentioning Trump. Unfortunately for my sanity, he's got the most delegates right now, which means I really shouldn't ignore him. His website is pretty sparse on his positions, but I'll do my best to find what applies.
His tax plan has some applications for the poorer and disabled communities. According to his site, anyone singly earning less than $25,000 per year or any couple earning less than $50,000 a year simply doesn't pay income taxes. That covers a number of my friends on and off the autism spectrum, so that's a help, even if it doesn't directly add anything to the social programs.
Trump's site also talks about stopping countries from sending their jobs overseas. While that won't directly have an impact on the autistic unemployment rate, the availability of more jobs in the US would be good.
Beyond that I have absolutely nothing positive to say about Trump. I, personally, believe he is the worst possible candidate for President. He's repeatedly demonstrated extremely poor behavior (sexism, bigotry, egotism) and routinely spouts vast quantities of lies. I do not want to live in a US with him as President, because I see him as a bigoted, self-righteous loose cannon that would just as soon mock me and ship my neighbors out of the country as help me achieve my potential as a person.
Bernie Sanders
So now we come to the other end of the political spectrum. Sanders' site is even more extensive on his viewpoints than Clinton's, which is an achievement.
Sanders, of all the candidates, strikes me as the most thoughtful toward the autism community and other minorities. There's a page with a number of specifics on his website. He wants to expand the educational opportunities for adults with disabilities by further funding an existing law (IDEA) and expanding on vocational education programs. He also wants to increase the existence of resource centers for aging and adult disabled people. This is not one of his more well-fleshed out policies (though more fleshed out than Clinton's), but it does have specific ideas that sound good in theory.
Like Clinton, Sanders wants to make public college tuition free. Also like Clinton, Sanders would like to let people refinances their student loans. I've covered why this is generally a good idea for people like myself, and people like my fiance.
Senator Sanders is also pushing the $15/hr minimum wage. I suspect this policy seems ridiculous to older voters, who recall minimum wage as a thing to keep our teenagers from being taken advantage of. Unfortunately, as I mentioned in the intro, that is no longer accurate. Minimum wage, with both parents working, is now what supports many of our working poor. A higher minimum wage would hopefully do good things for letting myself and my friends on the spectrum support ourselves.
On healthcare, Sanders' page is a series of quotes and infographics. But it summarizes to that Obamacare isn't working well enough, and a single-payer system would be better. So he wants to expand Medicare to everyone. I personally don't know how well that would work, but apparently it worked pretty well for Britain and Canada. I'd just be happy if I didn't have to keep applying every year for varying benefits and worrying about whether I'll be able to pay for it.
Finally, one of the Senator's biggest issues is the wealth disparity in the US. His numbers aren't always the most accurate, but the general concepts are unfortunately true enough. In the US today, the rich become richer and the poor become poorer. The statistics, unfortunately, back that up. For the autism community, insurances often don't pay for therapies, treatments, or social groups that we badly need. That means we pay for those out of our own (shallow, since most of us aren't employed) pockets, or don't go at all. That's not okay. We need understanding and help to be productive members of society.
In The End
Of all the candidates I've reviewed, I'd feel the most comfortable with the future under Senator Sanders. I can't honestly say I feel any of the Republican candidates care much for the plight of the disabled and autistic communities, based on their websites and espoused ideals. This is in distressing contrast to the Christian faith they claim, where Jesus specifically called his followers to feed and clothe the poor, and care for the sick and injured.
I think either Clinton or Sanders would probably do the job okay, but Sanders seems far more focused on uplifting and empowering the small people, like myself. The fact that he goes into specific ideas on his website, rather than broader, ambiguous statements, helps solidify that difference in my mind.
Whatever your particular political bent, though, please do vote in your primaries and the general election. America needs you.
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