Wheelchair users dragged away from McConnell’s office for protesting health care bill

[Auburn85 425]

https://thinkprogress.org/wheelchair-protesters-arrested-ahca-dc-c7ecf4c94f59

 

 

Quote

 

Dozens of disability rights activists were arrested.

Activists in wheelchairs protesting the Senate’s newly-released health care bill were arrested and dragged from outside Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office on Thursday.

The incident occurred after about 60 members of ADAPT, a U.S. disability rights organization with fierce objections to the American Health Care Act (AHCA), staged a “die-in” outside of the Kentucky senator’s office.

The AHCA would cap and cut Medicaid, something that would have severe repercussions for Americans with disabilities. Many people living with disabilities rely on Medicaid for their basic care and survival. A press release circulated by ADAPT stated that the intent of the protest was to “dramatize the deaths” the AHCA would cause in this community if implemented.

“To say people will die under this law is not an exaggeration,” Mike Oxford, an ADAPT organizer from Kansas, said prior to the protest. “Home and community based services are what allow us to do our jobs, live our lives and raise our families. Without these services many disabled and elderly Americans will die. We won’t let that happen.”

Initially, the demonstration was a relatively peaceful show of dissent, as a large number of protesters gathered outside of McConnell’s office to voice their anger, with some yelling, “I’d rather go to jail than die without Medicaid!” (McConnell was not in his office at the time of the protest, as he was introducing the health bill, while arguing it would “strengthen Medicaid.”)

But the situation appeared to deteriorate as police attempted to remove protesters. ADAPT’s D.C. area branch tweeted that officers were picking people up and dropping them, which video footage of the incident appears to corroborate. Several onlookers also reported seeing blood on the floor as activists were hauled away by police.

 

DC Metro ADAPT @DCAdapt

EMTs coming through, we're hearing rumors that police are picking people up and dropping them. #ADAPTandRESIST#SaveMedicaid

11:01 AM - 22 Jun 2017

 

 

ADAPT confirmed that 50 protesters with disabilities were arrested during the incident and are still being held in custody. Disability rights journalist David M. Perry also tweeted that Bruce Darling, CEO for the Center for Disability Rights, was seemingly being held separately from other protesters:

 

One ADAPT member said that police were responsible for the violent nature of the arrests, but that the organization’s demonstration was in keeping with the severity of the threat the AHCA poses to people with disabilities.

“The nature of the arrests were up to the officers,” ADAPT member Kings Floyd told ThinkProgress in an email. “We did not assist the officers in our arrest nor did we actively resist. The nature of the Trumpcare bill calls for a nonviolent but passionate demonstration, as our lives are at risk. We know with the proposed cuts to Medicaid people with disabilities will die. This means we will continue to fight for our lives and continue to be arrested as the police deem necessary.”

ADAPT has long been vocal in its rejection of any proposed cuts to Medicaid. In March, a protest of around 40 people, the majority of them in wheelchairs, shut down the Capitol Rotunda for around an hour while demonstrators railed against the AHCA.

 

 

 

 

[GiveEmElle 1,559]

 

[AFTiger 282]

What specifically in the bill were they protesting.  Wheelchairs are always good camera fodder.

[GiveEmElle 1,559]

54 minutes ago, AFTiger said:

What specifically in the bill were they protesting.  Wheelchairs are always good camera fodder.

Cuts to Medicaid

[homersapien 10,922]

1 hour ago, AFTiger said:

What specifically in the bill were they protesting.  Wheelchairs are always good camera fodder.

Is there anything you aren't totally clueless about? 

 

 

[TitanTiger 18,823]

1 hour ago, AFTiger said:

What specifically in the bill were they protesting.  Wheelchairs are always good camera fodder.

Seriously?

[AFTiger 282]

Protesting a bill about which they knew nothing. Seriously?

[GiveEmElle 1,559]

3 hours ago, AFTiger said:

Protesting a bill about which they knew nothing. Seriously?

What makes you think they knew nothing? 

You do realize that many disabled people rely on Medicaid? Cutting that impacts their survival. 

[homersapien 10,922]

4 hours ago, AFTiger said:

Protesting a bill about which they knew nothing. Seriously?

So, it sounds like you literally believed Trump when he said he'd deliver affordable health care for everybody!   And it will be great!

[AFTiger 282]

So it sounds like you actually believed Obama care worked.

[GiveEmElle 1,559]

Several cancer survivors say it worked. 

Here's one story:

http://www.dailywire.com/news/12417/lifelong-republican-tells-ryan-obamacare-saved-my-ben-shapiro

[AFTiger 282]

Ok. How about the rest? The individual with a $2,000 monthly premium and a $6,000 deductible? 

[GiveEmElle 1,559]

33 minutes ago, AFTiger said:

Ok. How about the rest? The individual with a $2,000 monthly premium and a $6,000 deductible? 

How about fixing the parts that are broken instead of cutting Medicaid and giving rich people a tax cut they don't need? 

[AFTiger 282]

Here we go again. Leftist hate of successful people. The entire system is broken by years of interference  by well meaning idiots. How about cutting out the the abuse of medicaid.

BTW, If the rich pay most of the taxes, why can't they have a tax break?

2 hours ago, GiveEmElle said:

How about fixing the parts that are broken instead of cutting Medicaid and giving rich people a tax cut they don't need? 

 

[homersapien 10,922]

3 hours ago, AFTiger said:

So it sounds like you actually believed Obama care worked.

It certainly worked for me and many others.  

I don't see how this Republican proposal is going to improve it.

[homersapien 10,922]

12 minutes ago, AFTiger said:

Here we go again. Leftist hate of successful people. The entire system is broken by years of interference  by well meaning idiots. How about cutting out the the abuse of medicaid.

BTW, If the rich pay most of the taxes, why can't they have a tax break?

 

That's insane.  A truly crazy thing to say.

[GiveEmElle 1,559]

22 minutes ago, AFTiger said:

Here we go again. Leftist hate of successful people. The entire system is broken by years of interference  by well meaning idiots. How about cutting out the the abuse of medicaid.

BTW, If the rich pay most of the taxes, why can't they have a tax break?

 

I know that's what Faux News tell you, that the left hates successful people. But that's just not true. What the left opposes is unnecessary tax cuts for the wealthy that result in people losing healthcare. The GOP fails to realize that people's lives depend on healthcare. No one's life depends on a tax break for the wealthy.

[homersapien 10,922]

Winner: the wealthy

So who gains from all this coverage loss, all the Medicaid cuts, and all these stingier private plans? Mainly, rich people.

The Affordable Care Act was financed by a diverse array of tax increases, mostly targeting high earners. The single biggest tax cut included in the bill is the repeal of the 3.8 percent tax the Affordable Care Act applied to capital gains, dividend, and interest income for families with $250,000 or more in income ($125,000 for singles).

Repealing that tax is a change that, by definition, only helps the rich, or at least the affluent. If you’re part of a married couple and, like the vast majority of Americans, make less than $250,000 a year, or earn more than that but have little investment income, it doesn’t affect you at all. The Tax Policy Center finds that repealing the tax would amount to an average tax cut of $0 for households in the bottom 90 percent — those making $208,500 or below. A handful of people in the 80th to 95th percentiles would see cuts, but the vast majority wouldn’t.

By contrast, members of the top 0.1 percent, who each on average make more than $3.75 million annually, would get an average tax cut of $165,090.

Then there’s the 0.9 percent Medicare surtax, a hike on wage income in excess of $250,000 a year ($200,000 for unmarried people). The Republican bill would repeal this surtax and, in so doing, give everyone in the bottom 90 percent an average tax cut of $0, per the Tax Policy Center. The richest of the rich, the top 0.1 percent, would get an average cut of $30,520.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/6/23/15857044/senate-health-bill-winners-losers-poor-wealthy-disabled

[TitanTiger 18,823]

19 hours ago, AFTiger said:

Protesting a bill about which they knew nothing. Seriously?

And you knew they know nothing about it, how exactly?

[GiveEmElle 1,559]