We, the citizens of the United States

I'm a native-born, flag-waving, patriotic American citizen. My dad was an Army medical corpsman during WWII who won the Bronze Star for Valor so that you and I can enjoy our freedoms. I'm also a 59 year-old, double amputee, quadriplegic who receives SSDI, Medicare and Medicaid. I broke my neck in 1968 and was left a quadriplegic. I spent from 1971-1988 in a nursing home. I fought to get a college education. I fought for and was awarded 5 scholastic scholarships between 1983 and '87 and I'm proud that my name is in the Congressional Record five times thanks to former Michigan legislator Dale Kildee. I fought to keep a meager $25.00/month “personal needs allowance” through SSI while in the nursing home. That’s right: $25 was allotted to me cover shampoo, toothpaste, shaving equipment and clothes for one month. I fought to keep my federal and state legislators from cutting that $25 allowance and Medicaid. I was on a student government panel in 1984 and '85 that helped create the first drafts of what became the “Americans with Disabilities Act” (ADA). After that was finally passed I thought things might go a bit easier. Life was better for a short time.

I got out of the nursing home in 1988 thanks to a very good Social Services worker who helped me use a little known program to pay a nurses' aide to take care of me in my own apartment. That program was the precursor to the “Home and Community-Based Waiver” (HCBW) which allows disabled Americans who would previously have been “warehoused” in nursing homes, to live at home with their families or in their own home. The HCBW pays a fraction of the cost of a nursing home and helps us feel more a part of the community. We serve very useful roles as mentors to those who are more recently injured, we work (if our disability allows) in our hometowns, and, in a few cases, hold public office.

As if fighting to stay healthy as I advance in years was not hard enough, I must now fight to keep Medicare and Medicaid from being cut again. I've already lost the Cost Of Living Allowance (COLA) increase in my SSDI for at least two years effectively reducing my SSDI. My Medicare Part B co-pay still increases even though my Social Security benefits don’t. If Medicare and Medicaid are cut too drastically, and the HCBW is adversely affected, I may end up back in a nursing home because Medicaid funds a significant part of the HCBW. That would also possibly put my caregiver out of a job and make her homeless.

Will Congresspersons be giving up their annual Cost Of Living Allowances (COLAs) as I'm being forced to do? No. Will their health insurance be cut as mine is being cut? No. Will they DEPEND on Social Security as their ONLY income when they retire? No. Will they worry about cuts in Medicare in their later years? No. Will they receive Social Security Retirement at age 67? YES! And they'll also receive their congressional wages AND COLAs for the rest of their lives. They'll also receive the same health insurance privileges they enjoyed as a congressperson for the rest of their lives. At first I fought for myself. Then I fought for the few dozen with severe disabilities I knew personally. Now I'm fighting for EVERYONE with a disability who relies on SSI, SSDI, Medicare, Medicaid and the dozens of government programs they depend on to prevent them from being shoved into a dark corner of a room and forgotten. That is exactly what being in a nursing home seemed like to a 21 year-old in 1971.

My color, sex, religion, sexual orientation and party affiliation don't matter and neither does yours. What you ARE doesn't concern me. What you DO as a voter or an elected official DOES concern me. That goes for Presidents, Vice Presidents, Senators, Representatives, Justices, Assemblymen, Aldermen and any other title used at the state and local levels. You hold the United States' collective futures in your hands. The Federal Government has spent more than $9 TRILLION in the last year to bailout various businesses in an attempt to “save our economy.” I think you went a little overboard and the President has thrown all of us to the sharks. Obama said he “had a health care plan that would cover every-body, would not add a single dime to the deficit, would not cost the taxpayers a single dime and would not be used to cover illegal immigrants.” It is, according to President Obama, to be funded by $500 BILLION from “doing away with the waste and fraud in the Medicare and Medicaid programs” and $400 BILLION in new taxes levied on those who earn more than $250,000 per year. Instead of a new healthcare plan, how about revamping the legal system by putting a cap on punitive damages awarded for malpractice suits? Instead of cutting Medicare and Medicaid spending by “doing away with waste and fraud,” how about just doing away with waste and fraud PERIOD? We could then expand the programs to cover more of those uninsured Americans. After all, if President Obama can cut the waste and fraud then he must KNOW where it is. Right? Add to that the fact that another health plan would mean dozens of more jobs would be needed to run the new program under another set of rules and regulations.

If President Obama “had a plan,” what is this bill authored by Max Baucus doing in the Senate? The Baucus bill will, by Baucus own admission, cost between $750 BILLION and $1.5 TRILLION over 10 years. If Obama is no longer supporting H.R. 3200 and is now supporting the Baucus bill, we are in for another fight. No one can yet read the Baucus bill because it has not been released to the public. Congress has figured out that we are now willing to read a bill that is 1,017 pages long and are doing their best to keep the Baucus bill secret from us until it’s too late for us to stop it. That is NOT what Congress is supposed to do.

We also don't need more “bailout plans” (“Cash for Clunkers,” “Lehman Bros.,” “AIG” etc.). We also don't need more “Czars.” Obama's 35 Czars are simply a way to circumvent Congressional oversight ability and pay individuals far more than a job WITH congressional oversight would allow. We don't need to solve all of the country's problems at once. Slow down the spending and think a while before acting. With Obama pushing them, the Democrats pushed through more bills and resolutions in 9 months than ever before. The founding fathers wrote into the Constitution a system of checks and balances with three branches of government. Let me correct that: FOUR branches of government. That’s right, I said FOUR BRANCHES of govern-ment. Do I now have your attention? That’s right: four. The way I see it, the founding fathers didn’t think they needed to state that the electors were the fourth branch because the electors decide who is in the other three branches. WE, the citizens, are the electors. WE, the citizens, employ THEM. They serve at our pleasure. Remember that when the next election day arrives.

The last election was, for the most part, decided by the mainstream press. They reported on personalities and played down or totally ignored the issues. Don’t let this happen again. Look at BOTH sides of the issues. Listen to more than one or two news sources. Read more than one newspaper and one news magazine. If we don’t educate ourselves on all the issues and all sides of all the issues then we haven’t done our part and don’t deserve the right to complain about what the government does. Remember that we are part of a government OF the people, BY the people and FOR the people. The most important part of that last sentence is “BY” the people. Every time we vote we are deciding our own fate. We may not always succeed in electing our preferred representatives, but we must vote if we want the chance of doing so. Don’t elect someone because of his or her color or because he or she is older or younger.

Does all this sound too simplistic? It's not. It is using our Constitution the way the founding fathers MEANT it to be used. It is not a complicated document. It was written to be used by the average citizen who could read and write in 1789. That would be anyone with the equivalent (today) of a 4th or fifth grade education. Redistribution of wealth? No. We are not socialists. We are a representative Republic. Read the Constitution and learn what it says. You must have a copy there someplace. Try the Library of Congress. Read and understand one of the most important documents in this country. It can solve many problems.