Washington, Nov. 11 – When FOX Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo asked former Gov. Jeb Bush about unemployed Americans seeking a job or who have stopped looking, the Republican presidential hopeful listed off a few ways he’d attempt to drive the economy back to four percent growth.
“The reason why we have structural deficits is that more and more people are relying on government and the growth that we don’t have makes — makes the deficit grow,” he said during the Fox Business Network – Wall Street Journal debate.
Along with several of his fellow presidential hopefuls, Bush then took the opportunity to attack Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton.
“Hillary Clinton has said that Barack Obama’s policies get an A,” Bush said. “One in seven people are living in poverty. That’s not an A…. It may be the best that Hillary Clinton can do, but it’s not the best America can do.”
It is worth taking a closer look at this statistic. Bush said one in seven (14 percent) of Americans live in poverty. But that amount doubles to 28 percent for people with disabilities.
In fact, with 56 million people, people with disabilities make up the largest minority in America and is by far the most impoverished. Less than 10 percent of white people live in poverty while 20 percent of Hispanics and nearly 24 percent of African Americans do – although they are all still lower than the 28.7 percent for people with disabilities.
None of the Republican candidates talked about this important constituency last night. More than 50 percent of Americans report having a family member or close friend with a disability. Fifty-two percent of Democrats report that they or a loved one have a disability, and for Republicans, a smaller number of 44 percent report they have a disability. Surprisingly, Independents have the largest number of voters who say they have a disability, with 58 percent saying yes. This shows that swing voters with disabilities and their families are up for grabs.
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