Danny And The Ryan Plan, Circa 2014

When I first wrote this article, it was after the GOP Controlled House of Representatives first passed the Path To Prosperity Plan or what we all call the Ryan Plan, in April of 2011.  Since that first time, they have tried to pass it 3 more times, always coinciding with Tax Day, in what I believe is a deliberate and craven attempt to look as though they really care about deficit reduction.

Whenever many of us hear that claim of “Deficit Reduction”, we laugh recalling that this is the same group of people who lied us into a deadly and unpaid war with Iraq and Afghanistan, an unpaid Medicare Part D Prescription Plan that was a give away to the pharmaceutical industry and worse, the Bush Tax Cuts to the Wealthy.

These tax cuts have strengthened and encouraged the dangerous lie that tax cuts to the rich contribute to job growth.  We now have a report that the GOP tried to suppress during the 2012 election cycle with more than 60 years of statistical data that proves otherwise. Here is an excerpt from the report the GOP suppressed during the 2012 election cycle, and now available below, courtesy of Daily Kos.

“The top income tax rates have changed considerably since the end of World War II. Throughout the late-1940s and 1950s, the top marginal tax rate was typically above 90%; today it is 35%. Additionally, the top capital gains tax rate was 25% in the 1950s and 1960s, 35% in the 1970s; today it is 15%. The average tax rate faced by the top 0.01% of taxpayers was above 40% until the mid-1980s; today it is below 25%. Tax rates affecting taxpayers at the top of the income distribution are currently at their lowest levels since the end of the second World War.

The results of the analysis suggest that changes over the past 65 years in the top marginal tax rate and the top capital gains tax rate do not appear correlated with economic growth. The reduction in the top tax rates appears to be uncorrelated with saving, investment, and productivity growth. The top tax rates appear to have little or no relation to the size of the economic pie.

However, the top tax rate reductions appear to be associated with the increasing concentration of income at the top of the income distribution. As measured by IRS data, the share of income accruing to the top 0.1% of U.S. families increased from 4.2% in 1945 to 12.3% by 2007 before falling to 9.2% due to the 2007-2009 recession. At the same time, the average tax rate paid by the top 0.1% fell from over 50% in 1945 to about 25% in 2009. Tax policy could have a relation to how the economic pie is sliced—lower top tax rates may be associated with greater income disparities.”

Now that Danny has passed away, I feel even more committed to helping people see the brutality of the Paul Ryan Budget Plan and the GOP agenda to give $200,000+ in additional tax cuts to people earning $1 Million or more, at the expense of the most vulnerable.  The issues are all connected and inter-related.  Yes, Danny was born special, but disability can literally happen to any one of us, at anytime.  I am gratified to finally see more of our party leaders taking hold of this important issue.  It is all about priorities.  As a nation, we must choose priorities that define our society and its character.

Whether you understand the overlapping concerns behind “Excessive Force” that is utilized against mentally disabled or challenged citizens by the Albuquerque Police Department or the sheer callousness and indifference of Paul Ryan’s Plan, we must help people to see the ugly truth in the GOP’s vision of America.  The James Boyds and Daniel Criswells of New Mexico must never be the victims of “Excessive Police Force”, gubernatorial neglect of Behavioral Health or “Blind Budget Cuts to Medicaid, Social Security or Medicare” by the Ryan Budget Plan.

Here is my original article ‘Danny And The Ryan Plan’ from 2011. 

Danny is 44 years old, Downs Syndrome, brittle diabetic with Celiac Disease, speech impediment or stutter and about the emotional age of 5 or so.  Danny has two little angels that live in his two index fingers; Marcus is in his right and Mikey is in his left. They have been with him since he was a small child and have helped him cope through a difficult and confusing life.  Psychiatrists would call his angels, alternate personalities.  To me, Danny is a sweet and loving angel with complete memory recall about every person he has ever met, but he also has stubborn and lazy tendencies. Danny’s parents died years ago and Aunt Clara, in her 80’s decided that it was time for someone younger to take over Danny’s guardianship.  I am Danny’s legal guardian and advocate.

On a Tuesday morning at 6:30am, I got a call from Danny’s home and caregiver, Vanessa, or Molly as Danny calls her and she told me she was with Danny in the Emergency Room of Presbyterian Hospital, in Albuquerque, NM.  It was yet another upper respiratory infection and this time severe pneumonia and sepsis.  Sepsis is essentially an infection in the blood.  These two things brought Danny to the hospital, but unfortunately, as things unfolded, his health issues grew more and more complicated with each passing day.  It was an adventure to say the very least. (Note to everyone; I am not a medical person.  I am just a simple woman who loves Danny and Danny loves me back.)

I met Danny when I married my husband Marty, his older cousin, who he calls Uncle Marty.  I am a singer and Danny fell for me as his special friend because of the music.  His favorite songs vary with the person or people he is with, but his favorites with me are Moon River, Nature Boy and Bye Bye Blackbird. Moon River because he loves any song with his favorite word Moon in the lyrics.  Nature Boy because he told me once that he is my “Magic Boy” with a beaming smile that always makes me tear up at the memory of that moment.  Bye Bye Blackbird is simply because its rhythm and words are simple and comforting to him and on some level, he relates to the words; “Where somebody waits for me, sugar sweet, so is he…Bye Bye Blackbird.”  During this most recent visit to the hospital, nearly 3 weeks, these songs proved to be more important than ever before.

When I left to the hospital a few hours after receiving the call, I left with only my cell phone and no laptop, thinking that I would have someone bring it to me later.  Later when I was asked if I wanted one, I replied, “Yes I want one, but I cannot divert my attention away from Danny.”  It was clear that Danny would demand all of my attention, imagination and patience.  As my time in the hospital unfolded, it was clear that I had much to learn about Danny’s issues, his recovery and myself.  I am grateful for the experience, even if I am sometimes disappointed by other people’s lack of understanding. Even now, the follow-up appointments involve helping Danny process the many changes and adjustments to his life that we never imagined, like a gastric feeding tube.  Danny is a foodie and this has been a painful and difficult transition for him.

As I struggle to catch up on all the writing and work that I should have done during that 3 weeks, I feel resolute in the knowledge that I was where I was supposed to be. The timing of my life with Danny as his guardian and advocate was good and the lessons were many.  Somehow, I  managed to raise a loving and supportive human being in my youngest child Matthew. Over the course of the 3 weeks, I came to see that in the hurry of living and working and doing, all four of my children are incredible human beings and that “Lo and behold” I had done a good job as a mother.  I am not certain why I am so shocked at this. This is the goal of any mother, right? It was because of my intense experience with my Danny that I came to realize all these blessings, in ways that I might never have otherwise.

So why did I call this story “Danny and the Ryan Plan”?  Well, it is very simple.  Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin wrote up a Budget Plan that is called the Road to Prosperity Budget Plan.  We all call it the Ryan Republican Plan and with all but 3 Republicans, it passed in the House with a majority on April 15th.  Luckily, it failed in the Senate.  The plan, while praised by the Right Wing Pundits for being courageous and brave, is heartless and hard and by the way, hated by most of the people who cared for Danny during his 3 weeks in the hospital, including me. You see, Danny is covered by Medicare A, B and C and Medicaid and Social Security.  Without these three components, Danny could not survive.  The Ryan Republican Plan wants to drastically change Medicare into a Policy Support Voucher System, cut Medicaid by nearly a third and privatize Social Security.

This plan, if successful will hurt every disabled person in America, not to mention the elderly.   Danny’s caregivers were evenly split politically; 50% Democrat, 40% Republican and 10% Independent.  All have dedicated their lives to caring for others as Doctors, Nurses, Nurse’s Techs, Radiologists, Physical and Speech Specialists and Therapists of every area you could imagine.  In all the 3 weeks that I was there, there was only 1 person in the mix that had no opinion. In general, my respect and love for the medical profession has grown.  Danny’s nurses and techs were more than nurses and techs, they were Angels, so much so that I cry at the memory of their kindness, dedication and patience.

There was one 27-year-old Republican Nurse that told me while helping me bathe Danny after a messy accident in his bed, that she was so ashamed of her party’s leadership in Washington over the issues of healthcare.  She was not sure that she could continue to remain a Republican if they continued in their push to mend the deficit at the expense of the most vulnerable in our society.  After finishing the arduous task of bathing and changing the bedding, Danny grasped one of Jean’s hands and one of mine and kissed each one and said in his halting speech, “Know what Jean? Know what Myaita? I love you!”  While Jean and I hugged each other with tears in our eyes, Danny smiled broadly and kissed Jean’s hand again, looked at me and said, “Don’t cry Myaita.”

Now a word about why I try to explain Danny as I did in the first paragraph of this article; often, people are afraid of special souls like Danny.  As his advocate, there is nothing more painful than watching normal people react in fear or horror at Danny smiling broadly, extending his hand to shake theirs, while saying “HiLo! Your name is? My name is Dan Man!”  So imagine my frustration at a segment of our political world that refuses to see the treasure and worth of all our disabled and special souls everywhere.  Ugliness does not reside only in one party alone, although Ryan and his cohorts are the carriers of this most recent effort of indifference, I have to say that “Lip Service Regard” on the part of others from all sides, is no better.  

What I am most concerned about is the social slide to dismiss the poor and physically vulnerable and “defective” in our society as expendable.  After all, there are few lobbyists in Washington on their behalf.  As I write this I feel a mixture of anger, fear and grief as I give voice to these realities, but I feel that I must. If we don’t speak up as decent people, we allow legislators like the man in New Hampshire who said “People with disabilities should be removed from society.” to continue as if it is perfectly acceptable to sweep people away for being defective in some way.  The media does not appear to be championing these outrages.

As Danny’s advocate, it is not hard to imagine the worst from our society, or the possibility that money and profits are more important that human decency.  Solutions like that adopted by the Nazis could be mimicked in bits and pieces by simply not funding services and programs.  Inadequate or absent healthcare is really extermination on the installment plan and there is a dangerous pattern in this, if this continues.  Decent and compassionate healthcare for all is not a Right or Left issue, it is a Right or Wrong issue.  Please reach out to each other and overcome this nasty divide that the profiteers, media pundits and wrong-minded politicians are deliberately creating in our country and speak up, sign petitions and write your representatives in the Congress and the Senate.

Sources:

Click here for the Congressional Research Service Report On Taxes That The GOP Suppressed

Click here for Taxes and the Economy: An Economic
Analysis of the Top Tax Rates Since 1945
Thomas L. Hungerford, Specialist in Public Finance
September 14, 2012, Congressional Research Service, 7-5700
R42729

Ezra Klein’s WongBlog, The Washington Post

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

The original article “Danny And The Ryan Plan” published at Progressive Democrats of America on May 21, 2011

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