April 20. 2016

 

 

Florida Governor Rick Scott and U.S. President Barack Obama

 

Recently, Florida governor, Rick Scott, was on the receiving end of a profane tirade in Tampa, Florida. A woman slammed Scott in a Starbucks over budget cuts he has made in office regarding women's health care . It is understandable the government would seek to balance the budget. However, cutting funds to the disabled, pregnant women and poor in any society, while government officials have luxury chauffeured cars, credit cards and big expense accounts, is unethical and inhumane.

 

The Obama Administration has cut funding for the disabled (both children and adults) on a federal level, which puts undue pressure on states, while people in the president's cabinet live the high life off the American taxpayers, via first class travel accommodations, padded expense accounts and big pay packets that are undeserved and inappropriate. Obama also gives billions of dollars in U.S. taxpayer money to his pet projects, such as solar projects, which have now failed.

 

It's amazing how the government can make sweeping cuts to programs for children, the disabled, disadvantaged and financially impoverished, but as the Tupac lyric states, "They've got money for wars but can't feed the poor." The government spends trillions on wars, but makes massive cuts to programs to help the needy.

 

A partially blind old lady asked me to read to her a letter addressed to her from the disability office in Florida, regarding how much assistance she would be getting and it stated $379.00 per month and that they had begun to reduce the previous figure by $79.00 monthly. I thought to myself, how can she live on that. The most basic one bedroom apartment in Miami, Florida is approximately $700.00 per month. Yet government officials in Florida and Washington, D.C. are being chauffeured around in $80,000 luxury cars on the taxpayer's dime, when they can afford to buy their own cars out of their paychecks.

 

I know several people who work with the disabled in the State of Florida. It is a rewarding field. However, the government makes it difficult for those who take care of the disabled, due to budget cuts, excessive amounts of paperwork and highly stressful file reviews. This also becomes burdensome for the disabled having to deal with the massive amounts of paperwork. People are sick and the government is demanding the disabled fill out enough paperwork to fill up a book.

 

Government disability offices in Florida are also questionably run. They tell the disabled to come in for reviews and monitoring, like it's parole, then hours before closing send people with impairments home, with instructions to come back the next day, as they are not of the belief they can see them on that day. So why tell people to come in. It is highly unprofessional and callous.

 

When you realize how much people with physical impairments go through to get up out of bed, bathe, get dressed and take transportation, then to be told come back the next day, hours (not minutes) before a disability office closes, it is disgraceful, vile and nonsensical. You can always tell a lot about an administration by the way it treats the poor and disabled.

 

Side Bar: There will be follow-ups to this article shortly and again around election time.