First let us take a look at some white house briefings on the subject of the proposed budget:
WH: Off-camera Briefing of the FY18 Budget by Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney.
" How do we get there? Amongst other things, we’ll talk about that. We talk about this in terms of tax policy. We talk about capital investment. Right now, one of the things that touches on the budget and how we get 3 percent growth, we need folks to work. We do. We need people to go to work. If you're on food stamps, and you're able-bodied, we need you to go to work. If you're on disability insurance and you're not supposed to be -- if you're not truly disabled, we need you to go back to work. We need everybody pulling in the same direction.
I think the difference right now between the U3 and the U6 unemployment rate -- I’ll look at this, don't want to get this wrong -- remember U3 is the unemployment rate as we look at it; and then U6 is the unemployed, plus the marginally attached, plus part-time for economic reasons, right? So it’s folks who want to work more but can't. That's the difference between U3 and U6 -- U3 unemployed, U6 unemployed plus folks who aren’t working enough but want to. That's 6.8 million people. Okay? We want those folks to work. We need them to work. They want to work as evidenced by the fact they're part-time against their will.
This is one of the things the budget focuses on. We go through the various reforms that we talk about. There’s a dignity to work, and there’s a necessity to work to help the country succeed. And we need everybody to pull in the same direction."
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: "And the no’s -- well, we’ll do the -- and we’ll talk about that in a second.
The no’s were all Social Security and Medicare. That's it. He said, I promised people on the campaign trail I would not touch their retirement, and I would not touch Medicaid.
And we don't do it. I honestly was surprised that we could balance the budget without changing those programs, but we manage to do that. We’ll talk about how we did that in a second.
At the same time, before I get the question -- people are going to say, oh, but Social Security disability insurance is part of Social Security. If you ask 999 people out of 1,000 would tell you that Social Security disability is not part of Social Security. It’s old-age retirement that they think of when they think of Social Security. In fact, the paid parental leave program that we are running, we are running it through the unemployment insurance program. And I think a couple of states right now actually that do it at the state level run it through their disability program. That does not mean that paid parental leave is unemployment or disability any more than the Social Security disability insurance program is part of Social Security. It just happens to be where they are structured."
Q But how do you stand behind a budget that doesn't deal with those two issues? I understand the President doesn't want to. But you voted for programs that -- in that past that --
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: I absolutely did. And I made the case for why those programs needed to be reformed. The President said, no, I’m going to keep my promises.
And I said, well, I’d still like to balance the budget.
He goes, I still want you to balance the budget, just don't do it changing these programs.
And we were able to do it. You asked the question about, how does 3 percent economic growth contribute to that? It actually does help the program, as you can probably imagine, as more people go into work -- and the President talked about this a little bit I think on the campaign trail -- as people come -- that U3-U6 split, which again is like 6 million people, if those folks go back to work full-time, they're now paying into the system. If the folks who are on Social Security disability insurance who are not supposed to be, if they go back to work, they're paying into the system, and they're not taking out of the system. So it does make the programs healthier. It does not solve their long-term deficiencies.
See full White House press briefing: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/05/22/camera-briefing-fy18-budge-omb-director-mulvaney
Editorial Note: I agree that only people should be getting assistance from governmental benefits, are truly disabled, and can't work. Not those who have two good legs, and arms, who can work yet, get government handouts, like food stamps, and disability pension. I think this is what the proposed 2018 budget is addressing, not the following story which sets the tone just by the words they use to make Trump out as a person who is a bigot toward people with disabilities.
CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS: President Donald Trump’s hateful rhetoric about people with disabilities during the presidential campaign is no longer just words. Now his budget threatens to set disability rights and inclusion back 50 years or more by stripping away critical protections and slashing vital programs that ensure basic living standards for the 1 in 5 Americans with disabilities. Meanwhile, despite media reports to the contrary, his budget breaks one of his core campaign promises: not to cut Social Security.
President Trump’s budget proposal would be especially damaging to veterans and people living in rural areas, who are especially likely to be disabled. What’s more, his budget proposals would disproportionately harm the very areas that shifted toward Trump during the 2016 election. New analysis from the Center for American Progress reveals that in counties that shifted most heavily toward Trump in 2016—where he performed at least 15 percentage points better than Mitt Romney in 2012—the share of people who report having a disability is 28 percent higher than the national average. Here is how President Trump’s budget would harm people with disabilities.
See full article: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/news/2017/05/23/432851/trump-budgets-attack-people-disabilities/
Editorial comment: Note the language being used in the article, you can tell the authors are just out to cause fear, and blinded by their own hate toward Trump to see how things really are in the disability community. Many would happy as clams if they were able to break free from the chains of governmental hand outs, and be making money on their own. However, there are those out there who commit welfare, and medicare fraud the above article never even mentions. It's time to weed out the dead beats who have been taking money from those who are really in need. Read what was actually been said in the White House briefing, and compared to what was reported in the Center for American Progress, and ask, who is it really preventing all in America towards progress in becoming self sufficient. It sounds to me those who want to keep disabled in the poor house are the ones who wants to keep the disabled (like me) be subject to whims the democratic party, what do you think? It's the DEMOCRATS who want us to be kept in poverty!
Related stories: US DEPARTMENT OF LABOR RELEASES FISCAL YEAR 2018 BUDGET REQUEST
WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta today released the fiscal year 2018 budget request for the U.S. Department of Labor. It supports President Donald J. Trump’s plan to invest in priorities that will help American workers develop the necessary skills to meet the demands of a 21st century economy and get good, safe jobs, provide working families access to paid leave, assist employers in meeting their responsibilities under worker protection laws, and restore fiscal responsibility.
Refocuses the department’s commitment to people with disabilities by launching a new demonstration project, jointly funded with the Social Security Administration, to test interventions that promote the labor force participation of people with disabilities and prevent permanent labor force detachment resulting from illness or injury.
https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/opa/opa20170523
Editorial note: Does this sound like an administration who hate's people with disabilities?
For more national news headlines see page 2
