Responses of Governor George W. Bush
Thank you for your survey covering your national policy priorities. I appreciate the opportunity to offer my views on these important matters with your members and supporters.
I believe that all Americans with disabilities, whether young or old, must have every chance to pursue the American dream - to use more of their own skills and make more of their own choices. Much progress has been made over the last two decades - most prominently with the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act - but much more needs to be done. Too often, people with disabilities are denied the tools and access necessary for success.
As President, I will enact a positive agenda to dismantle barriers and expand opportunities. We must increase access to technology and broaden opportunities to function, learn and live independently. We must better integrate workers with disabilities into the economy. We must promote innovative transportation solutions. And we must increase access for Americans with disabilities into community life.
That is why I have proposed a comprehensive New Freedom Initiative that will provide more than $1 billion to help open doors for Americans with disabilities.
1. To increase access to technology for Americans with disabilities and to expand opportunities to function, learn, and live independently, I will:
- Triple the Rehabilitative Engineering Research Centers' budget for assistive technologies, create a new fund to help bring assistive technologies to market, and increase tenfold the funding for low-interest loan programs to purchase assistive technologies.
- Work with Congress to increase funding for special education with the goal of meeting the federal obligation under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
- Focus Title I funds on earlier grades to identify children with disabilities, and invest $5 billion over five years to establish the "Reading First" program.
- Reform HUD's Section 8 rental voucher program for people with disabilities to permit recipients to use up to a year's worth of vouchers to finance the down payment on a home.
1. To further integrate Americans with disabilities into the workforce, I will:
- Provide $20 million in federal matching funds to states to guarantee low-interest loans for individuals with disabilities to purchase computers and other equipment necessary to telework from home.
- Support legislation to make a company's contribution of computer and Internet access for home use by employees with disabilities a tax-free benefit.
- Sign an Executive Order to support effective and swift implementation of the "Ticket-to-Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act" that gives Americans with disabilities the ability to choose their own support services and maintain their health benefits when they return to work.
- Support full enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and provide new resources for technical assistance, to help small businesses comply with the Act.
1. To increase access for Americans with disabilities into community life, I will:
- Sign an Executive Order supporting the most integrated community-based settings for individuals with disabilities, pursuant to the Supreme Court decision in Olmstead.
- Create a National Commission to recommend reforms of the mental health service delivery system.
- Support improving access to the polls and ballot secrecy for people with disabilities.
- Provide $10 million in matching funds annually to increase the accessibility of organizations that are currently exempt from Title III of the ADA, such as churches, mosques, synagogues, and civic organization.
My New Freedom Initiative will go a long way toward to help ensure that more Americans with disabilities can learn and develop skills, live independently, engage in productive work, choose where to live, and take active part in the life of their communities.
I am also committed to the rigorous enforcement of existing civil rights laws. If the Supreme Court concludes this fall that States are immune from suit by individual citizens for failure to comply with Title II of the ADA, I will work to achieve all of the Act's important objectives in a manner that will pass constitutional muster. My New Freedom Initiative, for example, includes a proposal to provide $10 million in federal matching funds annually to increase the accessibility of organizations that are currently exempt from Title III of the ADA, such as churches, mosques, synagogues, and civic organizations.
I also support effective and swift implementation of the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act. My New Freedom Initiative helps here, too - expanding work opportunities by making transportation more accessible, aggressively promoting telework, and ensuring that Americans with disabilities do not lose their disabilities benefits once they take a job. My proposal promotes innovative transportation solutions for people with disabilities by providing $45 million in funding for 10 pilot programs run by state or local governments in regional, urban, and rural areas, and establishes a competitive, $100 million matching grant program to promote access to community-based alternative methods of transportation.
As President, I will also be committed to enforcing the Individuals with Disablities Education Act (IDEA). I will work with Congress to increase funding for special education with the goal of meeting the federal obligation under IDEA. In addition, I will focus Title I funds on earlier grades to identify children with disabilities, and invest $5 billion over five years to establish a bold "Reading First" program, similar to what I've successfully done in Texas to conquer illiteracy among disadvantaged and reading-at-risk children.
Finally, I will work in partnership with states - and not act as a regulatory roadblock - so they can secure Medicaid waivers that promote innovative and creative solutions for our most vulnerable populations.
As to your other questions:
- Appointments: Those who honor and champion the rights of Americans with disabilities will have a determined ally when I am President of the United States. As President, I will appoint people who are highly qualified, possess strong knowledge of the relevant issues, and meet the highest ethical standards. As Governor of Texas, I have appointed people who share my compassionate conservative philosophy and my belief in local control, limited government, strong families, and individual responsibility. I can assure you that I will appoint qualified people from all walks of life. My management philosophy is to hire the very best people for the job and then trust them to do what's right. Those with disabilities need advocates in government and the private sector alike. If I am elected, those are the kinds of officials I intend to appoint.
- Social Security: Social Security is the single most successful government program in American history. It is a test of government's capacity to give its word and keep it, to act in good faith and to pursue the common good. It is also a test of presidential candidates - a measure of their seriousness and resolve. I am committed to saving Social Security for this generation and the next. If elected President, I will build a bipartisan consensus to protect and strengthen Social Security on the basis of six key principles:
- Modernization must not change existing benefits for retirees or near-retirees.
- The entire Social Security surplus must be locked away only for Social Security.
- Social Security payroll taxes must not be increased.
- The government must not invest Social Security funds in the stock market.
- Modernization must preserve the disability and survivors components.
- Modernization must include individually-controlled, voluntary personal retirement accounts, which will augment the Social Security safety net. These accounts will earn higher rates of return, have parameters of safety and soundness, and help workers build wealth that can be passed on to their children.
- Long Term Care: As our population ages, providing long-term care is one of the most important challenges families will face. Currently, seniors must spend down their hard-earned assets in order to access government benefits. America can do better. I support letting families deduct 100 percent of their long-term care insurance premiums. I believe that by providing incentives to purchase private coverage, seniors and their families will know that long-term care benefits will be available when they need them most. Government must also provide reliable and comparable information about the quality and cost of care provided by long-term care providers.
Additionally, while the costs of nursing homes and assisted living facilities are substantial, they do not include the full cost of caring for seniors who have physical or mental impairments. About 57 percent of the frail elderly rely solely on family and friends for care. In fact, a recent survey found that 22 million American households have at least one member providing some unpaid assistance to a spouse, relative, or other person older than 50. To alleviate some of the financial burdens associated with home-based care, I favor giving caregivers an additional personal exemption for each family member they tend to in their home.
- Patient Protections: When people need health care they want to know that they are getting the best care possible. One key way to boost health care quality is to let individuals control and customize their own care. Patients' needs must be paramount, and innovative providers should not face a false choice between patient care and the bottom line. As Governor, I have consistently supported greater patient control and signed one of the most comprehensive patient protection laws in the nation. Our Texas law forbids health plans from using any financial incentives to induce providers to limit medically necessary services, requires plans to provide patients with access to emergency rooms, and directs health plans to refer patients to out-of-network providers when medically necessary and covered services are not available from in-network providers. I will support similar protections at the federal level provided they do not supersede the patient protection laws Texas and many other states already have on the books. I will also reform and expand medical savings accounts and permit Americans to roll over their flexible savings accounts to provide greater freedom of choice and empower individuals to manage their own health care. Giving patients greater options will spark innovation and pro-patient reforms.
Patients also deserve access to a swift and impartial forum to resolve disputes over their health care plan, and I favor giving patients strong protections similar to those already enacted in Texas. During my tenure as Governor, Texas became the first state in the nation to enact a law giving patients the right to seek legal action if they have been harmed. The law contains a strong independent review process and other protections designed to encourage quick, out-of-court resolution instead of costly, protracted litigation. The process empowers patients and is working well in Texas.
- Health Care Access: Make no mistake: In my Administration, all low-income Americans will have access to high-quality health care that meets their needs. I believe that America must set a goal to make a quality health insurance plan accessible to every low-income, working family in America - for themselves and for their children. We will not nationalize our health care system. We will promote individual choice. To accomplish this objective, my New Prosperity Initiative focuses on:
- Providing access to health insurance for the uninsured through a refundable health credit;
- Promoting the development of more affordable private sector insurance plans; and
- Empowering individuals with greater freedom of choice.
My plan offers a $2,000 refundable health credit so that they can purchase their own insurance. I also want to make it easier for small businesses, which employ 60 percent of the uninsured, to obtain lower cost insurance through associations. In addition, I will remove federal regulations that restrict state flexibility in designing and implementing programs for the uninsured. I also want to expand and reform medical savings accounts to give individuals greater freedom to make their own health care choices.
In addition, many uninsured and medically underserved people live in inner-city neighborhoods and rural communities - areas with few or no physicians or other health services. In these areas, Community Health Centers are a critical component of the health care safety net, serving 11 million people - 4.4 million of whom are uninsured. To strengthen the health care safety net for those most in need, I have proposed $3.6 billion to build 1,200 additional Community Health Centers. I also have proposed strengthening and reforming the National Health Service Corps to ensure that physicians are directed to the areas most in need. I also favor establishing the "Healthy Communities Innovation Fund" to provide $500 million in grants over five years to fund innovative projects addressing targeted health risks, such as childhood diabetes.
- Prescription Drugs: To modernize Medicare, I have proposed a $110 billion MediCARxES proposal for comprehensive bipartisan reform that will:
- Guarantee that every senior shall remain entitled to current Medicare benefits.
- Give Medicare recipients a choice of modern health plans, including coverage for prescription drugs.
- Cover the full cost of Medicare premiums for seniors with incomes at or below 135% of poverty, and subsidize the cost of prescription drug coverage for seniors with incomes between 135% and 175% of poverty.
- Cover catastrophic Medicare costs in excess of $6,000 annually for all seniors.
- Pay 25% of premium costs for prescription drug coverage for all seniors above 175% of poverty.
To ensure that low-income seniors do not have to wait for overall reform to have their prescription drugs covered, I will establish the "Immediate Helping Hand" program, which will provide $48 billion of direct support to states for four years to:
- Cover all costs of prescription drugs for seniors with incomes at or below 135% of poverty, and a part of the cost for seniors with incomes between 135% and 175% of poverty.
- Cover any prescription drug costs in excess of $6,000 annually for all seniors.
- Supreme Court Appointments: I will appoint judges who have a judicial temperament, who share my conservative philosophy, and who will strictly interpret the Constitution rather than legislating from the bench. To determine whether a candidate has these qualities, I will consider prior writings and statements by the prospective appointee, the recommendations of legal experts and organizations, and, finally, my own judgment regarding the candidate's personal qualities and integrity.
- Housing: To expand homeownership, I believe we should reform HUD's Section 8 rental voucher program to permit recipients to use up to a year's worth of vouchers to finance the down payment on a home. I also want to establish the "American Dream Down Payment Fund" to provide $1 billion of matching grants to lenders over five years to help as many as 650,000 low-income families, who are not enrolled in Section 8, to become homeowners.
Your survey covers several vital issues that deserve thorough responses so I asked my policy staff to assemble the enclosed materials. These items - policy position papers, a recent speech, news releases, and other items - describe in detail my record as Governor, my New Freedom Initiative benefiting Americans with disabilities, and related policy proposals aimed at expanding work, housing, and education opportunities. I hope this additional information helps.
I appreciate your invitation to offer my views on these important issues. As the campaign moves forward, as the campaign moves forward, your thoughts and ideas are always welcome. I'm results-oriented, and if elected president, I welcome an ongoing dialogue on ways to remove barriers affecting Americans with disabilities.
