GOP shoots down bill to help disabled
The "Advancing America’s Priorities Act" is a bill put forth by the Democratic minority in the Senate to fund spinal cord research and treatment. The act had 36 different bills in it to fund various projects from research to treatment for a variety of spinal and brain injuries. Unfortunately, the GOP, under the leadership of Tom Coburn of Oklahoma explained that helping the disabled in this country moved us away from the most important problem ever – expensive gasoline. So with that piece of wisdom, this group of bills that would have reduced suffering and given millions that are disabled a better chance than ever of getting out of their wheelchairs, was shot down along party lines of 50-40. It is good to know that money is infinitely more important than human beings that are in excruciating pain. "They’re using every trick to get us away from dealing with high gas prices," said Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky
It is sick to think that there are Senators and Congressmen that believe that saving money is more important than saving lives or reducing pain and suffering. These are the same people that look the other way when a wheelchair is coming down the side walk or those that refuse to hold the door open to an elderly person that walks with a walker. These people have no further thought than the credit cards in their wallet and their Charles Schwab accounts. It must be nice to live in a perfect world where nothing ever goes wrong, where you are filthy rich, and every day is a sunny day so you can drive your Ferrari to the beach.
For those of us with spinal cord injuries, it can seem like the end of the line as far as life is concerned. You can no longer defecate, urinate or take care of yourself. Home health aides or nurses are required to get you into and out of a wheelchair. Pain exists at levels that blows past the worst felt by a woman in hard labor. To counter that pain we are given opioids, which do cut down the pain but force us to have blurry vision and sleepiness. This is of course if you can even get your pain pills. There is a way being waged against the disabled in Washington State to make it illegal to get opioids from any doctors. The state says that it is too expensive and that they cannot afford it. I am glad that these representatives are not in pain so they do not have any thoughts of their neighbors that are literally dying of pain. It must be nice knowing you saved money on the back of a fellow human being that cannot take care of themselves.
I’m not sure if we have lost our humanity, but something needs to be done. It is the government’s responsibility to help those that cannot help themselves. Perhaps our congressmen and senators should read our constitution as well as the books written by our founding fathers. Then they need to read the bible which states we need to treat people the way we want to be treated – the golden rule. I doubt the disabled that can’t get pain medication or rehab help are that happy with those that have turned off the money. Would those that turned off the money be happy if one of their loved ones had an accident and was disabled? Would that family member be tossed out of the perfect family that nothing ever goes wrong in? Would they be refused pain killers or hospitalization? When it is your own I think not. Is this how we are supposed to treat others?
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I am disabled. i have multiple sclerosis and confined to a wheel chair daily. i also have a diagnosis of bipolar. Also a diagnosis of neuropathy. I made 24,000 dollars the first year i was disabled, and i spent 17,000 dollars in medical bills as they were trying to diagnose my condition. Which did not give me very much to live on for that year, if it had not been for my family and friends i could not afforded my house payment which before i was disabled i was a cna and a rn for 24 years and was making double payments on my house each month. i did not have a small chevorelet truck paid for foe but only owed approx. 1000 dollars. I learned to live a life completely different from what i was use to. Not only with my physical, mental, and emotional disability, and with the isolation one feels after living a prodductive life caring for others, and then finding yourself in the same situation, but nobody is there anymore except you very immediate family.
Due to having Multiple Sclerosis I have to take a shot every day, and have MrI’s every six months and I am on numerous medications to control the pain, and the spasms that allow me to be as productive as i can be between episodes.
I have ms, which I know could benefit from the research they could do with stem cell research. I have done only a small amount of research on stem cell research, and if it only pertained to getting cells from embyolical cords, i have no problem with that, unless the dorors are paid for their donation, for as many people on welfare, they keep having more kids, so they can get more money from the government, and not work, and not spend the money on the children as they are suppose to. and that so often occurs especially in the area in which i live. but as i read on about how they could not get enough cells from umbiliccal cords, and wanted to use aborted babies, or babies born alive, and allow them to get what they need from the babies and then just allowing them to die, I believe that is the most disgraceful and inhumane thing i have ever heard, and that is one of the things Obama wants done. Other sites i have looked at have suggested that there are thousands of frozen embryo’s that infertile women were going to use, but have not used yet and they don’t understand, these too are possible lives. Life begins at the moment of conception. Then I also read that sometimes people have to have more than one treatment, so they want to clone the cells in which can be saved and used for a later time. And God only knows where that will lead.
I do believe the disabled need more funds to assist in their care. I did the responsible thing, and took out short term disablity and of course when that run out, i did get long term disability, but all that was done was the amount of income that i made from me paying for short term disability, and then recieving long term disability once my ssi started i had to pay back all that i had recieved from my short term disability which they took a great amount out of my check for each pay check. In other words I would have probably been better off to just let the government support me during that time, but I dont go around with my hand out, i have never been that kind of person. my ansestors before me were the same, they worked hard all their life, and did not want help from anybody, but when they became disabled, or when they were70 years old, I guess they did expect the government to give them something back in which they had paid for all their lives. And I had difficulty going on disability and drawing a check as they say every month if for nothing else but for the stigma that people get for doing so. But I thought about those 12 hour shifts that i worked and run my butt off for all the years that I did, and then would look at my check, and it sure did look like I deserved more money than what I had made, but it was due to taxes and social security that was taken out on me. So I dont feel guilty anymore.
I have always been a democrat, or I guess I mostly voted for the man and his positions on things,this year I voted for Mccain. I did what i could from home in making phone calls sending emails, for i believed him to be a man of integrity It is hard for me to believe that he would believe in cutting services off to the disabled, when they need more, just for medical expenses, not including living expenes. And taking away from the vets who have fought for our country would be a disgrace to all man kind, and fewer people would enlist, seeing how they would be treated in return, that is if they survived and was able to come back home. I dont believe in Obama’s spread the wealth, for I know each person has worked hard to get where they are, and they do not owe me anything. And like many of Obama’s supporters thought if he was elected he was going to get their housing paid for, their utilities, and was even going to help buy their groceries, and many of these people have probably never worked a day in their life. I also read of all the support that even illegal immigrants were given from the government. I am not standing with my hand out.
But taking away our right to be pain free is also inhumane. Many people are in chronic pain every day in their lives, which other diseases that stem cell research may not even help. I take pain medication daily, in order to function as well as i do. taking away a perons right to be pain free, or to lessen their pain would be so inhumane. It would be as bad as deniying a person in the last stages of cancer to recieve pain medicine so they could as least die in less pain.
The thing is I was trying to find a site on the internet that might guide me to a site that even I being disabled and homebound could assist the GOP in any way and this is the first site that I came upon, and i was just in disbelief if this site is true. And to think I was attempting to try to find a way in which I could help you, and then read this article, about how you are trying to get bills passed that will deny people the right to be free of pain, or less pain? I dont know what to believe anymore. I heard how you needed to get back to the five things that conservatives represent, and I guess if this is how you feel, I guess I will have to continue to vote for the man, and do a lot more research on both canidates, rather than see all the bad in one canidate, and let that overwelmingly make my decision on who to vote for.
The constitution was made for all of us, not just a select few..
And I dont undhow the government is allowing aig to get away with giving it’s ceo’s bonuses, and all the unnecessary trips they have made since they were given the money for a bail out and then continue to ask for more money and it is given to them? and the tax payers are paying for all of this. Is all party’s of the government all for the elites, and not for the middle class or lower class of people. It sure seems that way.
Just one american citizens opion.