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The game of clue in this Presidential election season is solved: Mr. McCain, in the Oval Office, with a hatchet.
What were the clues in last night’s debate which have led to solving the mystery? You need look only as far as Joe the Plumber and McCain’s stance on “redistribution of wealth” and how it relates to our most vulnerable citizens.
The phrase “redistribution of wealth” refers to taxing working people in order to provide a social safety net for people who are unable to work, pay taxes, or live on their own. Obama spoke directly to the Americans on this subject many times, but also in the debate. He says that we need to fund underfunded mandates. Those mandates are things like Medicaid and Medicaid waiver programs that provide services to people with disabilities and seniors as well as special education.
John McCain, who mirrored his own tactics by saying that Barack Obama was speaking eloquently to hide his true policy, said that under his administration, there would be funding for Autism research. While that is great, in the next sentence he said that we need to take care of these families – and the American people will dig into their pockets for that. “Digging in to their pockets,” refers to making charitable donations – not paying taxes for social safety-net programs. This is the mantra of the republican, “less government” platform. And people with disabilities and their parents should be very alarmed by this statement. It is not possible to fund programs for people with disabilities and older people purely through charitable donations. The cost of care for 24/7 services for people who are unable to care for themselves alone runs between $50,000-$75,000 per person. This is why programs have been set up to use taxpayer money to support these individuals.
Joe the Plumber said it himself after the debate: he doesn’t want his money taken from him to be distributed to “others.” Well Joe, sorry to bother you again but you need to know who those “others” are. They are your parents, who may need nursing home care one day. They are any of your own family members who may have disabilities. They are the most vulnerable people in the nation – and one day, “they” could be “you.” No person in this country is immune from the possibility of becoming disabled at a time in their lives when they have not saved enough money to support themselves when they are unable to work any longer.
The game of clue is solved. Now it is up to America to decide: do we care about those “others” or not?
