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The US already does more than any other country to ensure equal rights for its people. The rights of Americans with disabilities are well protected under existing law. These rights are enforced by a wide range of state and federal agencies. Joining the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) merely opens the door for foreign "experts" to interfere in US policy-making in violation of the principles of American sovereignty.
The treaty doesn't even define disabilities, but says that "disability is an evolving concept." This is consistent with the nature of UN treaties, which often extend the organization's reach beyond the original treaty concept.
The treaty attempts to guarantee certain economic, social, and cultural "positive rights," such as the right to education, health care, and "an adequate standard of living for [persons with disabilities] and their families, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions." In other words, instead of relying on the charitable nature of Americans (a characteristic most politicians -- especially at the UN -- either despise or fail to comprehend) to help the disabled and truly needy, the treaty would guarantee another new man-made "positive right" of forcing you to pay another person's bills through taxation and "wealth redistribution" -- if that is the current mood of government.
Neither the UN nor any other country can begin to compete with the safeguards America already has in place for the disabled. As a global traveler, I see how poorly even the most advanced foreign nations adapt to the needs of the disabled. Inviting the UN and other international groups to come in with authority over America's treatment of its citizens would not help people with disabilities and would have many harmful and costly consequences.
The CRPD is nothing more than another tool for the UN to interfere in American law and liberty. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities must be soundly rejected. As a disabled military veteran, I urge every US Senator and every US citizen to aggressively work for its defeat in the Senate.
The Senate voted on this horrid bill today. It nearly passed, getting 61 of the 67 voted needed to become a part of the "Supreme Law of the Land."
ReplyDeleteIn commenting on the vote, Utah's junior Senator, Mike Lee, said, "America is the gold standard when it comes to protecting the rights of the disabled. Today’s vote doesn't change that. Instead, the Senate rightfully rejected a treaty that could threaten the rights of parents to determine the best education, treatment, and care for their disabled children. It also halted our possible descent down the rabbit hole of international 'entitlement rights' – which could have serious consequences for domestic law. I applaud the Senate for preserving our sovereignty."
Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma added that he voted against the treaty because he opposes "cumbersome regulations and potentially overzealous international organizations with anti-American biases that infringe upon American society."
For the other side, clueless elitist Senator John Kerry clucked, "This is one of the saddest days I've seen in almost 28 years in the Senate and it needs to be a wakeup call about a broken institution that's letting down the American people. We need to fix this place because what happens and doesn't happen here affects millions of lives. Today the dysfunction hurt veterans and the disabled and that's unacceptable. This treaty was supported by every veterans group in America and Bob Dole made an inspiring and courageous personal journey back to the Senate to fight for it. It had bipartisan support, and it had the facts on its side, and yet for one ugly vote, none of that seemed to matter. We won't give up on this and the Disabilities Treaty will pass because it's the right thing to do, but today I understand better than ever before why Americans have such disdain for Congress and just how much must happen to fix the Senate so we can act on the real interests of our country."
Kerry and other CRPD supporters seem to be unable or unwilling to understand that if the US (the nation with the best laws and policies for the disabled on Earth) has any problem with the way it treats the disabled, we can and should fix it in-house -- not throw the problem to the wolves of the UN!
As I should have expected, the vote went largely down party line with most Republicans voting for unalienable natural rights endowed by our Creator, Democrats voting for fiat rights dictated by UN bureaucrats.
The fact that the treaty failed to pass is good news. It is extremely troubling that a majority of the Senate would be willing to turn over control of American rights to UN politicians and bureaucrats.