College of DuPage newsroom
The Department of Education has retracted its proposal to cut $17.6 million from the Special Olympics following public outcry.
The squatter currently occupying the White House had a pretty good strategy for sticking it to people with Down Syndrome and other disabilities.
But then he and his crew got carried away and made a stupid mistake. His hand-picked Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, unveiled a budget that proposed to eliminate all federal funding for the Special Olympics. If you want to look like a big time Scrooge, that’s a good way to do it.
As Politico reported, the department’s last two budgets also called for cutting this funding, but Congress refused to go along. This time, Representative Mark Pocan, Democrat from Wisconsin, and others called DeVos out publicly about it. So the squatter backed off and said that Special Olympics money would be restored.
Wow! The squatter never backs off anything, no matter how stupid it is. The more stupid it is, the more he usually doubles down. I’m surprised he didn’t threaten to shut down the government if Congress doesn’t zero out the Special Olympics. But he backed off. Don’t mess with the Special Olympics! They will crush you with their wholesomeness.
So now the squatter hopes that puts an end to all that hubbub, so he can go back to quietly reaming the same people in more effective ways in the same budget proposal.
Here’s what The Arc, a national organization with more than 350 chapters that advocates for and serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, had to say in a recent blog post:
“If the administration’s original budget request could cut $18 million from Special Olympics, which provides longstanding community benefit for thousands of people with disabilities, their families, and volunteers, then you should be asking yourself: What else is lurking in these proposals? Unfortunately, it’s the tip of the iceberg.”
Trump hopes they've put an end to all the Special Olympics hubbub so he can go back to quietly reaming the same people in more effective ways.
The squatter’s budget, The Arc laments, would eviscerate Medicaid, which is far more consequential for far more disabled folks than the Special Olympics. It again proposes annually capping the amount of money the federal government reimburses states for Medicaid costs. That commitment has always been open-ended, with state and federal governments dividing whatever that state’s annual Medicaid costs turn out to be. This drastic retreat was also in the bills to repeal the Affordable Care Act that failed to pass the Senate.
“The end result of these proposals being put in place would be less money for states, restrictions on eligibility, cuts to services, and growing waiting lists,” says The Arc’s statement.
And the squatter’s budget proposal would also impose Medicaid work requirements nationwide. Disabled folks would be exempt, but only in theory. According to The Arc, “Applying this policy would have devastating effects on health care coverage—particularly for people with complex health care needs, and likely many people with disabilities.”
In Arkansas, where work requirements are being enforced, the process for claiming and maintaining a disability exemption is cumbersome and ongoing. More than 18,000 people were cut off Medicaid in Arkansas in the second half of last year simply for not keeping up with the work requirement or exemption reporting process. It’s a good bet that includes some disabled people.
The gaffe over the Special Olympics hasn’t drawn the same scrutiny to these other proposed changes. But in the squatter’s defense, I suppose it’s possible he never intended to completely cut off the Special Olympics. Maybe he thought he could get Mexico to pay for it.