Political Jules for Love, Life & the Pursuit of Politics

Obama hits up the disability community

February 5, 2009 · Leave a Comment

This is lower than low.  The bills supporters have sent out mass emails to disability lists accross the country saying that they will lose their funding unless they call their senators and urge their support for the bill.

This is bad, bad, bad! The disabilitycommunity is being bombarded with lies about the porkulus bill.

This is the same over inflated Trillion dollar pork bill that is trying to be passed now by hitting up the disability community. What they do not tell you is that the money that goes to each state will be controlled by the federal government. In other words, the states have no say so in how the money gets spent. So if the feds say across the board the money is going to only poor areas, that is what will happen no matter what. This is Taxation without Representation, and personally I don’t want it. Plus what works in New York will not necessarily work in Texas.

Please be careful with your support for this bill. The supporters in congress are waging an all out war with scare tactics to attempt to get this passed.

I have also heard that these provisions may not even be in the bill.  I dont know that for sure, but someone should check it out,

 

This is the email I got:

National Down Syndrome Congress and National Down Syndrome Society Action Alert!
February 5, 2009

In This Issue –Call Your Senators Today!

Action Needed Immediately
Call Today!

Call TOLL FREE
1-800-473-6711 and ask for your Senators’ offices. Ask them to support the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Please send questions or comments to susan@ndsccenter.org.
::

Immediate Action Needed on Important Disability Provisions
Call your Senators Action Needed Immediately

This is a critical moment for funding for services for individuals with disabilities. Action is needed on two important matters currently before the Senate.

Action Item One
Support Disability Provisions of Economic Stimulus Package
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is on the Senate floor this week.
Several of the provisions of this Act benefit people with disabilities including:

Medicaid
- $87 billion for an increase for the federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP)

Education
- $13 billion for IDEA Part B State Grants and $500 million for Early Intervention – Part C of IDEA

Social Security- $17 billion total for a one-time payment ($300) to all SSI and Social Security recipients, veterans, and others and $890 million to improve the National Computer Center and information technology

Jobs – $500 million for Vocational Rehabilitation programs.

Several amendments are being proposed that could jeopardize this desperately needed funding. Please call your Senator and ask him or her to pass this bill. As always, constituent calls are essential in getting important legislation passed.

Talking Points

·Please support S.1 and oppose any amendments that would weaken Medicaid assistance to states.

·The economic recovery package provides important funding to programs that provide essential support services to people with disabilities.

·Please keep these provisions in the bill.

Action Item Two
Ask Your Senator to Support Sense of the Senate Resolution to Rescind Certain Medicaid Regulations

Please ask that your Senators also support the attached “Sense of the Senate to Rescind Certain Medicaid Regulations”. The Amendment is sponsored by Senators Schumer, Inouye and Baucus and states that it is the Sense of the Senate that the following regulations should be rescinded that would have an impact on individuals with disabilities.

1. School-based Medicaid services, such as transportation

Some school districts are able to access Medicaid funding to be reimbursed for transportation and other administrative costs for Medicaid eligible children. This regulation, if not rescinded, could severely limit this funding causing already financially strapped school district to lose a great deal of funding.

2. Medicaid rehabilitative services

This is an important source of Medicaid funding for many adult services. Losing this funding would cause the loss of these services.

3. Case management services

This regulation would limit funding for case management services for individuals with disabilities, primarily those leaving institutions.

Below are the relevant portions of the amendment.
SEC. 5006. SENSE OF THE SENATE REGARDING RESCISSION OF CERTAIN MEDICAID REGULATIONS

It is the sense of the Senate that the following regulations relating to Medicaid should be rescinded:

(4) REHABILITATIVE SERVICES.-The proposed regulation published on August 13, 2007 (72 Federal Register 45201).

(5) PAYMENTS FOR COSTS OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION, TRANSPORTATION.-The final regulation published on December 28, 2007 (72 Federal Register 73635).

(6) CASE MANAGEMENT SERVICES.-The interim final regulation published on December 4,2007 (Federal Register 68077).

Categories: Uncategorized

Looks like Iran is calling the shots now.

February 5, 2009 · 1 Comment

Iran is refussing to meet with us without preconditions. Feel safer yet?

Iran says US must accept nuclear programme

By Roula Khalaf and Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran
Published: February 4 2009 18:48

A senior adviser to Iran’s president says dialogue with the US will succeed only if the Obama administration accepts Tehran’s right to have a nuclear programme. Mojtaba Samareh-Hashemi, right-hand man to Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, the fundamentalist president, said, in an interview with the Financial Times, Tehran was studying its options, just as the new US administration was reviewing its Iran policy.

The US hopes to engage with Iran and persuade the country to halt its uranium enrichment activities, the most sensitive part of the nuclear programme, and withdraw its support for militant groups in the region.

The launch of a homemade Iranian satellite on Tuesday further raised concerns among western powers that Iran was accelerating its development of ballistic missile technology.

But Iran too has a list of demands requiring US policy shifts.

On some issues – such as the removal of US troops from Iraq and stabilising Afghanistan – Iran and the US can find common ground.

Others, particularly Iran’s claim that its nuclear programme is peaceful in nature and so advanced that it has become a fact on the ground, could prove the two sides’ differences are irreconcilable.

“If [US] policies change the two nations will get closer to each other, the two governments will get closer to each other and the chances for dialogue and co-operation will succeed,” said Mr Samareh.

“The policy of [George W.] Bush was to use this [the nuclear issue] as an excuse to stand up against the Iranian nation.

“For there to be change, this policy has to change.” In Afghanistan, he said, Iran was expecting a more robust effort to fight opium production.

Another big concern for Tehran were US attempts to negotiate with elements of the Taliban, the radical Sunni group ousted from power and seen by Tehran as a security threat.

“When the US goes into Afghanistan under the pretext of fighting illegal groups how can it enter into negotiations with them?” said Mr Samareh.

He also pointed to the Bush administration’s support for Israel during conflicts such as the offensive in Gaza against Hamas, which is supported by Iran, and the 2006 Israeli war against Hizbollah, another Iran-backed group.

In both cases the US sought to delay the passing of a UN ceasefire resolution.

“Is the new US administration going to continue these policies? If it does, then nothing will change,” he said.

While the US last week sent envoy George Mitchell to discuss Gaza with leaders in the region, including Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority, which Hamas ousted from Gaza two years ago, Iran hosted Khaled Meshaal, the Hamas leader, in Tehran this week.

Nato called last week for greater efforts to involve Iran in resolving Afghan issues.

Mr Samareh shrugged off the debate in Washington over whether the Obama administration should engage with the government of Mr Ahmadi-Nejad, which could lend him credibility, or try to bypass him by seeking direct contact with the supreme leader and final decision-maker, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“The leadership system is unified, with each one having their own responsibilities and when the government makes a decision it means it’s the decision of the whole system,” he said.

He has sat down on more than one occasion with former American officials, although Mr Samareh insists that recent reports of negotiations with William Perry, former defence secretary were overblown.

Mr Samareh said he had taken part in discussions held in Europe with western experts and academics, which included Mr Perry but they were neither official, nor were they negotiating sessions.

Western officials say pressure will intensify on Tehran to compromise, as financial sanctions, designed to force Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, bite harder in a climate of lower oil prices.

Although Iranian business has suffered from the restrictions imposed by the US and the UN, record oil revenues have cushioned their impact.

Mr Samareh, however, played down the impact of sanctions, saying the financial sector’s isolation had, in effect, helped shield it from the global financial crisis.

The government was hoping to counter lower oil revenues by restructuring subsidies and curbing current expenditures, he said.

Inflation, meanwhile, which had reached more than 25 per cent, was on its way down, and housing prices were coming down, all of which was, he claimed, leading to “economic enthusiasm.”

Categories: Middle East