Republicans Debate over the Economy: Is There a Place for People with Disabilities?

Tuesday night, the national spotlight fell upon my hometown, Milwaukee, WI, as the 10 Republican presidential hopefuls prepared for the fourth national debate. While hundreds of protesters of various affiliations filled the streets outside of the historic Milwaukee Theater, moderators from both Fox Business News (FBN) and the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) prepared to give the audience the antithesis of the CNBC debate of a few weeks ago.

My job in watching this debate was to listen to the Presidential plans and to report how each candidates’ plans will affect people with disabilities (PWD). I have a disabling, chronic autoimmune disease, so of course I’m interested in every candidate’s plan for the future of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and affordable healthcare. With the debate’s emphasis on the economy the overwhelming message from every candidate was “cut taxes, entitlements and regulations.”

The debate was broken into two rounds, giving the candidates 90 seconds to respond to direct questions and 60 seconds for rebuttals. It was quite refreshing to have candidates allotted enough time to deliver a complete thought or idea. The first round of candidates (those who averaged below 2.5% in four recent national polls) Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal, Rick Santorum, and Mike Huckabees sounded much like their prime-time counterparts. The candidates were delivered pre-approved questions and returned with a bevy of well-rehearsed, bullet-pointed replies.

I did find the debate informative. Without the bickering and “gotcha” questions of previous debates, this was a real opportunity for every candidate to lay out how they see “their America”. All four candidates spent a good portion of their time outlining their similar plans for economic recovery including, creating simpler tax codes, lifting all regulations put in place by the Obama administration and repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Whenever I hear “lift regulations,” I begin to feel nervous. What will that include? Medicare, Social Security, the Americans with Disabilities Act?

A great deal of Republican angst comes from “entitlement” programs such as Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Food Stamps, low-income housing, etc. Too often Social Security and Medicare are also mistakenly added to the “entitlements” column. Huckabee went out of his way to highlight that Social Security and Medicare are not entitlement programs. However, his presidential tax plan includes eliminating all personal and corporate taxes and instead adding a consumption tax on all purchased items and goods. What will the consumption tax cover? Roads? Military? What will happen to PWDs who rely on “entitlement” programs to survive? So many questions remain unanswered.

Christie vows that his first presidential action would be to repeal the Affordable Care Act, noting that he’s already done so in his home state of New Jersey—where he refused to participate in the federal ACA exchange. He does have an alternative plan laid out on his website and encouraged the audience to check it out without any further insight. However, again there is no mention to where those with chronic, life-threatening health conditions will get their health care. Nor is there any mention of what PWDs in need of accessible, affordable housing might do when all the housing regulations are lifted.

Santorum’s plan includes imposing a 20% flat tax across the board. But what if you have no taxable income because you cannot work due to disability? He’d also repeal the Clean Energy Act in order to increase the number of young adults going into the trades. Santorum’s vision includes returning Americans back to the factories and plants—a new manufacturing boom. Given the discrimination PWDs face when looking for office work, etc. I can only imagine how easy it’ll be to get a welding job in the plant. But I’ve been known to be wrong–from time to time. My worry, again, without regulations who guarantees any of us will ever be hired?

The second round – the Prime Time event – was a two-hour debate well moderated by FBN’s Neil Cavuto and Maria Bartiromo and WSJ’s Gerard Baker. Front and center stage were the two Republican frontrunners, Donald Trump and Ben Carson, flanked on both sides by Carly Fiorina, John Kasich, Jeb Bush, Bobby Jindal, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul.

As protesters outside the theater carried signs demanding a $15 minimum wage, the second debate kicked off. The first question, “Would you raise the minimum wage?” The panel responded with a unanimous “No” for various reasons. This question quickly led to their discussion about the economy and tax reform not unlike the previous debate.

Senator Rubio sounded a lot like Rick Santorum in that he would repeal much of Obama’s energy regulations and set fixed tax rates, as well as repealing the ACA. He did not mention what the alternative would be. He did suggest that he would fire the entire sitting Congress, Rep. and Dem., if he were President.

Kasich presented a few thought-out ideas throughout the event. Kasich challenged Trump on his wall and the logistical and moral mess of deporting the 11 million illegal Mexican immigrants living in the US. Kasich also spoke of tax reform and smaller government and repealing the ACA. He does have an alternate healthcare plan that he has put in place in Ohio. His national plan is available on his website.

Carly Fiorina also has an alternative to the ACA—a free market healthcare exchange. She sees the individual states having their own “high-risk” pools for those in need. I imagine that would be where people like me would end up. However, that too, could become problematic very quickly. If there’s a fixed amount in a “high risk” pool and someone in the pool has a health emergency, what happens?

Rand Paul plans to eliminate payroll taxes, leaving it to the business tax to pay for the Social Security funds. Paul and Rubio also volleyed back and forth over who the true conservative is and whether spending a trillion dollars overhauling the military could be considered conservative.

Ted Cruz would slowly raise the age of retirement on future generations. Meanwhile he would make half of their Social Security taxes available for private retirement accounts with the rest going into Social Security. He would also repeal the ACA with no alternative plan mentioned. He is very passionate about repealing government regulations and shrinking government departments. He vows that his first act of business will be to abolish the Dept. of Commerce, Dept. of Education, Dept. of Housing & Urban Development (HUD), Dept. of Energy, and the IRS. Now, the Dept. of Education provides the oversight and yes, the regulations for the education of children with a variety of disabilities. HUD is the entity that oversees fair housing guidelines, Section 8 and Section 42 housing, all of which are necessary for many PWDs who wish to live as independently as possible. These eliminations could be problematic without an alternative program/solution in place. It’s up to us to ask the questions and insist on being heard.

When discussing Social Security, every candidate referred to those seniors who’ve worked hard and paid into Social Security all their lives. When talking tax breaks and creating jobs, many candidates referred to the trades, manufacturing and manual labor. However, seniors are not the only ones who have paid into or need Social Security benefits. And sadly, my body (and many like me) doesn’t allow me to do much manual labor.

There are 19 million American adults currently receiving SSDI. Social Security Disability Insurance is an insurance program that workers pay for while they are working. If a worker can no longer maintain substantial employment due to a severe disability, SSDI replaces a portion of lost income. WhiteHouse.Gov

It was an interesting three hours. The moderators maintained order, sticking to the topics and staying away from sensationalist subject matter. The candidates were respectful, Trump almost blended into the background and while I now have a better understanding of what each candidate’s policy looks like, I’m left still left with many questions.

One big question that remains is, Where will people with disabilities fit in a Republican America? Hopefully, a few more debates will give us the answer.

Deserae Constantineau is a freelance writer born and raised in Milwaukee. She’s been published in Veil—the Wisconsin Wedding Magazine, Women Magazine, Arthritis Introspective, several community newspapers and she currently writes the weekly blog for wuwm.com/people/ex-fabula. She’s also a disability rights advocate, a patient right’s advocate, a public speaker, a volunteer and a cat lady.

Contact: Deserae Constantneau