Service Members Home Ownership Tax Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

Service Members Home Ownership Tax Act Of 2009

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Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Rhode Island, Senator Whitehouse, who has been among the more forthright and capable advocates of what we are talking about today, not only with regard to health care generally, but in particular what brings us to the floor at this moment, among several issues, but principally his work and the work over many years that Senator Kennedy did for the so-called CLASS Act, the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act.

What is this all about? I wish to talk for a couple of minutes about how it works. I think sometimes we get lost in the discussion about the finer points of a policy or program and we tend to forget what it means. Here is what it means. Here is what it means for an American who is working and wants to continue working to support his or her family or to support themselves, contribute to our economy, demonstrate that people who happen to live with a disability of one kind or another can be so significant in our economy, can contribute so much with their ability and their brain power and their ability to contribute in a very positive way.

We are talking about the dignity of work, whether the Senate is going to stand up and say: With this act, with this program for someone who happens to have a disability and wants to work and wants to voluntarily contribute premiums so they have some security, some peace of mind down the road if they should need this help, we are talking about the dignity of that work.

This is a test of the Senate, whether we are going to stand up for people who have a disability and their opportunity to work. It is a very simple question. You either stand with them or you do not.

It is also about one important word, I think--independence, whether we are going to say to someone who wants to work and has a disability, are they going to have the independence, the freedom to work and live the life they choose?

Here is how it works. This is not complicated. This is not some mysterious program. Here is how it works. Here is how they qualify to get these benefits. They qualify to receive benefits when they do three things. First, they need help with certain activities of daily living. We all know what those are. There are so many people out there who can work and can contribute if we give them a little help, just a little bit of help that we are talking about today to do the basic things in life--to be able to wake up in the morning and, if you have a disability, maybe have someone help you get ready for work, whether that is getting in the shower, shaving, whatever you have to do to get ready for work in the morning--activities of daily living, things that people who do not have disabilities take for granted. That is the first thing you have to have is that need that we can all understand.

Secondly, this person would have to pay premiums for at least 5 years before they could benefit from the program. I said ``premiums.'' I did not say a ``government subsidy.'' We are talking about premiums here, and this is a program that certainly has its origin in government, but this is not exactly similar to the Children's Health Insurance Program, for example, or Medicaid, where it is a government program that helps a particular person, a person who happens to have a disability or is a child. In this case, people are paying premiums, and they have to pay those premiums for 5 years.

In addition to the need and paying premiums, the third requirement is they have to work at least 3 of those 5 years. We are talking about people who are employed, working people who happen to have a disability. This is a creative program to help them do that.

Why do we get the opposition we do from across the aisle? I think it is pretty simple. We have a lot of folks across the aisle who want to kill this bill. So they are going to try to strike the CLASS Act, which is outrageous and insulting. They are going to try to strike whatever they can, if they can, to kill the bill. So this is a bill-killing exercise. This is not a debate about the finer points of the CLASS Act. This is a bill-killer exercise. It is very simple, and I think it will tell a lot about where people stand.

Let me go into a couple more details. I know we are almost out of time. Here is what happens to that beneficiary--a person working, a person who has a need, and a person who has paid premiums. That beneficiary receives a lifetime cash benefit based on the degree of impairment, not just any old formula. We want to make sure the benefit corresponds to someone's impairment, their inability to do their job or live their life the way they hope
to. It is expected to average about $75 a day or more in the case of an individual. That is what we are talking about here.

We are not talking about, in this case, a government entitlement program. Few people are as passionately supportive of the Children's Health Insurance Program or Medicaid as I am. I believe there are programs that are funded by the government, run by the government, that work very well. But in this case, we are not talking about that kind of a program. We are talking about a program that does not confer rights or an obligation on government funding, nor does it affect the receipt or eligibility for other benefits. The program stands on its own financial feet because people are paying premiums out of their own pocket for 5 years to save for that day when they have a need because they have some kind of disability. And it is solvent--solvent. It is a program that people sign up for voluntarily. It is a voluntary program.

When you line up all of the reasons to support this program that Senator Dodd, as the chairman of our committee, the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, this summer when we were debating this bill--he carried the ball for Senator Kennedy in the chairmanship of our committee and in our hearings and also for this program. I am grateful for his leadership and also grateful for Senator Harkin's leadership to support this voluntary program. I am also grateful that Senator Whitehouse has lent his voice and his expertise and his focus on getting this program as part of our health care reform bill.

It makes a lot of sense. It is solvent, and it will help those who have a disability who want to work, who want to go to work every day and live a full life.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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