TASH is working with the Collaboration to Promote Self-Determination to educate all members of the Joint Super Committee about the importance of reforming key entitlement programs and publicly financed supports to ensure a more focused approach on assisting individuals with disabilities to be fully included in public education, access job training and post secondary education opportunities, obtain integrated employment and generate income, and live in homes of their choice and with people they desire to live with. While the JSC is challenged with crafting a proposal to cut an additional $1.2 trillion from the nation’s federal deficit over the next ten years, TASH (in collaboration with CPSD) is using the JSC’s work as a launch pad for pushing several policy recommendations around cross-systems reform. The JSC advocacy campaign is focused on several key themes related to control of resources by consumers and families via individual budgeting; prioritizing community-based services for all individuals, and realigning public finances so as to decrease the government’s continued investment in segregated programs and activities. TASH and CPSD are pushing the JSC and Congressional leaders to consider transforming the current model of publicly-financed supports from one that perpetuates cyclical dependency to a model that promotes optimal self-sufficiency. The CPSD has outlined the policy rationale for why now is the opportunity for reform of some of the nation’s oldest entitlement programs.
Deficit Reduction, Fiscal Reform & Disability: Insights for the Joint Super Committee