13.2% Unemployment Rate Shows Bowling Is Not Pres. Obama’s Biggest Problem With Disabled Americans
By Roy Beck, Tuesday, March 24, 2009, 10:54 AM
Pres. Obama supposedly got into hot water with disabled Americans last week when he made a joke about his bowling skills and Special Olympics to Jay Leno. But his true insult to the handicapped was his insistence last week on keeping 7 million jobs (currently held by illegal aliens) out of reach. The first-ever official unemployment rate report on the disabled tells the story (and my handicapped wife has a story, too) . . .
American adults with physical handicaps are among the worst victims of the federal government’s insistence on importing 138,000 new foreign workers each month — and of Pres. Obama’s and congressional leadership’s continued pressure for an amnesty to allow an estimated 7 million illegal aliens to permanently keep U.S. jobs.
Official unemployment for disabled Americans stands at 13.2%.
The government reported that was 59% higher than the official unemployment rate for non-disabled Americans for the same period.
You can be sure that the 13.2% gravely underestimates the lack of employment opportunities for the handicapped because that only counts the handicapped who are actively looking for a job and can’t find one. The majority of all Americans who don’t have a job are not counted in the unemployment figures because they have left the labor force entirely, either willingly or because of discouragement. You can imagine how much more quickly a person with disabilities loses the will and energy to continue futilely seeking a job and, thus, stops being counted as unemployed.
When the New York Times or the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops or any of dozens of nationally prominent leaders cry out for amnesty, they are stating their preference for hiring illegal foreign workers over disabled Americans.
A PERSONAL DISABILITY STORY
My wife Shirley has been handicapped since she had an onset of multiple sclerosis in 1974.
Shirley is fortunate to have had a good education (University of Missouri) and profession (physical therapy). As the disease took away her ability to walk and many other things, she put in an elevator and created a clinic in our home and downsized most of her patients (treating mainly babies and children). Through use of ingenuity, mechanical devices, incredible will and often the assistance of patients’ family, she continues to run a bustling pediatric therapy practice.
But even physical therapists aren’t immune from being undermined by immigration policies. Nearly every year, various Members of Congress fight to import larger quantities of foreign physical therapists rather than support expansion of U.S. PT schools to train the long backlogs of American students who are desperate to learn the profession.
My main point, however, is not about Shirley, but about her patients.
Anybody can have a child born with a disability.
When you look into the faces of the parents of Shirley’s patients — when you see the arduous devotion required of them to help their children achieve levels of self-sufficiency and personal fulfillment — you know that one of the most important goals for the end of the long effort into adulthood needs to be . . .
. . . a job.
A certain percentage of these disabled members of our national community will be fortunate like Shirley and be able to compete at a professional level. But a disproportionate number of them will need more routine jobs. Many of those jobs are disproportionately held by foreign workers — especially illegal aliens at clerk stations, in the parking garage booths, in myriad tasks that do not require much mobility.
Last week, Pres. Obama promised full inclusiveness for disabled Americans and also promised that he will work diligently this very year to keep an estimated 7 million U.S. jobs filled with illegal foreign workers. On balance, this was not good news in the pediatric physical therapy units across America.
FOREIGN LABOR ESPECIALLY DISADVANTAGES THE DISABLED
All other things being equal, do you suppose an employer is going to prefer a disabled American or a strong-bodied, young foreign worker?
It is difficult enough to first of all find jobs in which a disability does not have to prevent the worker from performing up to standard. Secondly, it is difficult for the disabled to get past many employers’ natural qualms about hiring them.
But the federal government’s immigration policies may be the greatest handicap of all that disabled Americans must surmount.
With the federal government opening massive floodgates of foreign workers since 1990, it is no surprise that the employment dreams entailed in the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 have been largely unconsummated. Pres. George H.W. Bush signed that act but also signed another bill that drastically increased the flow of foreign labor to compete with the disabled Americans trying to become fully productive members of society.
Since then, Presidents Clinton, George W. Bush and now Obama have done everything possible with immigration policies to keep disabled Americans out of the job market by pushing foreign workers in front of them in line.
OBAMA’S DISCONNECTED COMPASSIONS
Before going on Leno’s show, Pres. Obama probably was sincere in an exchange with a handicapped American man, according to the Washington Post:
During a town hall forum in Los Angeles earlier in the day, a disabled man told Obama ‘about the true renaissance that’s happening’ among people with physical disabilities, asking the president how “your disability agenda will release this emerging potential that’s currently wasted and untapped?’
‘Well, you are exactly right that we need everybody,’ Obama responded. ‘And every program that we have has to be thinking on the front end how do we make sure that it is inclusive and building into it our ability to draw on the capacities of persons with disabilities.’
Mr. Obama, when you say “every program,” you obviously do not include your immigration programs. Are your immigration programs making sure that the nation does its best to use the talents of the disabled members of our national community?
No.
And you are wrong to say that “we need everybody.” Because of your predecessors’ — and now your — immigration policies, the employers of America most definitely do NOT need our handicapped fellow citizens. The official unemployment rate makes that clear.
As usual, Pres. Obama shows no sign of understanding that foreign workers compete for jobs with Americans. He seems to regard immigration as some form of human rights, civil rights or global humanitarianism program that has no impact on the labor market.
He may be sincere in that ignorance, but that sincere ignorance is devastating to the American households who are without a job because of our immigration programs.
As a result, Mr. Obama continues to appear willing to perpetuate immigration policies that are profoundly anti-humanitarian, anti-justice and anti-mercy. He did not create them. But he is now the Change President who refuses to change these destructive policies.
SHIRLEY BEAT THE PRESIDENT’S CAMPAIGN BOWLING
With all the photos and news stories about the President’s bowling prowess the last few days, our family decided to celebrate Shirley’s birthday last night with several hours at the bowling alley.
With family holding her up, Shirley double-pumped all her own throws at the foul line. Her immediate goal was to beat Mr. Obama’s celebrated outing before the Pennsylvania Primary last year when he quit after bowling a 37 through seven frames (a pace for a 53 game). Shirley got close with a 52 the first game, fell short the second and then ended with a triumphant 87.
That was still short of the 129 that the President says he recently achieved at the White House lanes, but I’m sure Shirley would be happy to try a direct competition at the White House and to compete without a scoring handicap — as long as Mr. Obama would remove the immigration handicap from the job market for disabled Americans.
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The Obama Press Conference… A Cornucopia of (censored)
A solid article by Mr Eberle with a few of my comments to flesh out his otherwise clear thoughts. You just can’t deny it anymore. The evidence is overwhelming. Obama and the constellation of people he has surrounded himself with are hardcore socialists. They have lied, and are lying every time they open their mouths. Their “tax cuts” are signified by an increase in the amount I pay to the government each paycheck. Their “new era of fiscal responsibility” is marked by spending more money than all presidents in history up to this point COMBINED. Obama’s promise to eliminate lobbyists from government has been carried out by filling his cabinet with them. Obama’s new spirit of bipartisanship consists of reminding the Republicans that “I won.” Hope and change? More like Ropes and Chains, or Cope with Pain.
The Obama Press Conference… A Cornucopia of !%&&%#*
Posted By Bobby Eberle On March 25, 2009 at 7:03 am
President Obama went before the American people (again) in order to pitch his brand of socialist policies. His budget has come under attack, as I reported yesterday, and on Tuesday night, Obama tried to clarify why massive government spending and saddling America with unprecedented levels of debt are justified.
A number of statements and comments really caught my attention. From Obama saying that his administration needs to make some “tough budgetary choices” to a his comment that there will be “zero growth” if his agenda is not passed, there were plenty of sound bites to make the American people shudder. Please Republicans… step forward and lead… we can’t let Obama take us down the path to socialism.
First, a note about the teleprompter… As reported in the Associated Press story on GOPUSA, Obama had a new teleprompter in place to deliver his opening remarks. As the AP notes, “President Barack Obama took no chances in his second prime-time news conference, reading a prepared statement in which he took both sides of the AIG bonus brouhaha and asked an anxious nation for its patience.”
Next, how about a quick fact check. As noted in the AP “fact check” story, Obama notes that recovery from the recession “will take time, it will take patience.” Yet, his own budget predicts a relatively quick end to the recession with “solid 3.2 percent growth for 2010, followed by three years of more than 4 percent growth each year.” He uses these numbers to support his budget that adds trillions to the national debt. As I noted yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office predicts even more debt than Obama does… a debt that would cripple this nation.
The AP next focuses on Obama’s statement that in the budget, “we have made the tough choices necessary to cut our deficit in half by the end of my first term even under the most pessimistic estimates.” In reality, “Not all credible estimates foresee a deficit halved in that time.”
In one exchange, Obama was asked about his budget which breaks new records in deficit spending. The reporter quoted Obama from just last week when he said, “I didn’t run for president to pass on our problems to the next generation.” Well, that is EXACTLY what he is doing… in addition to raising taxes and imposing more big government on the American people now. The reporter went on:
Side note: If Obama’s budgets are put in place, America will reach the point where it is paying more each year on the interest to the national debt than it is paying for national defense. Talk about throwing money away. We simply can’t keep borrowing and borrowing.
Obama began his response to the question by saying, “First of all, I suspect that some of those Republican critics have a short memory, because as I recall, I’m inheriting a $1.3 trillion deficit, annual deficit, from them. That would be point number one.”
Excuse me… but the last several budgets that were passed were voted on by a Democrat-led House and a Democrat-led Senate. What you inherited was the result of a Republican president and Democrats in Congress, so at least be honest with the American people.
Obama then goes on to compare his deficit numbers with those of the CBO:
The main point I’d like to make here is, “Who cares if Obama’s numbers turn out better than CBO’s!!!” Obama’s numbers still lead to $7 trillion in additional debt.
I could go on and on regarding what Obama said and what it means for the country, but let me tie two more items together. First, it’s this quote from Obama:
The next statement is this one:
The first quote is a shameless attempt by Obama to trick the American people into accepting his socialist agenda. Make no mistake… America will come out of this recession. The question is, “How will it look when it does come out?” We will have growth, and for Obama to say that the only way to grow is to spend, spend, spend, and tax, tax, tax is completely insane.
Here’s a proposal. What if we totaled up the price Obama wants to spend on health care, infrastructure, education, science and technology, etc. and didn’t spend it but rather gave it back to the people in the form of tax cuts. Does anyone, Republican or Democrat, think that more money in the hands of each and every American citizen would lead to zero growth? I don’t think so.
And so, we have the second statement where Obama is actually right. We haven’t seen an alternative plan, and we need one. If the American people only hear from Obama, then he is the only one they will listen to. (The proposals have been made, but ignored by Uh-Bama. Cut income taxes, corporate taxes, and capital gains taxes, eliminated mark-to-market, get rid of the DEMOCRAT ORIGINATED policies of lowering lending standards, and DRILL FOR OUR OWN OIL. All but the drilling make up an INSTANT stimulus. As has been proven time and time again, the government will also get more revenue from sales taxes, not less as the liberals claim. The other key elements to our continued long term survival is getting rid of much of the social spending that has become so common place. We must get back to being a society of individuals who pull their own weight, yet help others in need out of our abundance, not because we are forced to.
As I just mentioned, reducing the power and scope of government and returning that money to the people would result in massive growth. People could hire other people. People could save for college. People could purchase goods and services. They could do all of this according to their own personal agenda and philosophy… and not be subject to the social engineering being put forth by the Obama administration.
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