[nfb-talk] Disabled group members arrested at McCain's office

[John Heim]

Disabled group members arrested at McCain's office | AP | 04/29/2008

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Disabled group members arrested at McCain's office

LAURIE KELLMAN

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - At least 20 disabled activists, most of them in wheelchairs,
were arrested outside Sen. John McCain's offices Tuesday after being refused
a
meeting with the GOP presidential nominee-to-be over a bill to expand
Medicaid coverage to more people who want in-home care.

"If he should be president, it would be ironic that he comes from a party
that talks a lot about family values," said Bob Kafka, national organizer
for
ADAPT, a group advocating for passage of the bill. Without the legislation,
many disabled and elderly people don't have the choice to apply coverage to
anything other than institutional care, he said.

"Families are devastated because they don't have a choice to keep people at
home," Kafka said.

McCain was not in his office during the protest. He was campaigning Tuesday
in Florida on his health care plan.

The bill, stuck in committee since last year, would amend the Social
Security Act to allow people who are eligible for Medicaid coverage of
nursing home
costs to spend it instead on home-based, or community care.

Sponsored by Sens. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Arlen Specter, R-Pa., it also
would grant extra money to states that participate in the program, according
to
a summary of the bill.

Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois,
rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, are co-sponsors of the
bill, but
McCain is not.

Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said about 20 people from the group
were arrested outside McCain's office in the Russell Senate Office Building
on
Tuesday and charged with unlawful assembly.

McCain's Senate chief of staff said the protesters turned down an offer to
meet immediately with McCain's aides. Mark Busey said he didn't know
McCain's
position on the legislation but would ask. The chances are slim, however,
that the senator himself would be meeting with members of the group.

"We are more than happy to let them know when he will be back in the
Washington area at public events, town halls and the like," Busey said in a
telephone
interview. "Right now we do not know when he's going to be here for a
meeting."

,,,

The bill is S. 799.

,,,

On the Net:

Bill text:
http://thomas.loc.gov

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Claude Everett
American by chance, Californian by choice.
Everyone has a disability, some are more aware of it than others.