1/ @AndrewYang’s inspiration for his naive & irresponsible “Automatically Sunset All Laws” policy is Federalist Society lawyer & Trump Advisor PHILIP HOWARD, who pushes for deregulation & fast-tracking infrastructure project approval at the expense of environmental protections. 
2/ In this video @AndrewYang casually laughs off the suggestion that any sunsetting of laws resulting from his policy could ever result in something like polluted water, because basically, he‘s not that kind of guy. Also, he didn’t REALLY mean ALL laws! 🤯
3/ Here’s the transcript of the 2011 Federalist Society Panel: A Federal Sunset Law that inspired @AndrewYang. The fact that this pile of far-right garbage is part of the policy platform of a Democratic presidential candidate is disturbing. @DNC @TomPerez
drive.google.com/file/d/0BxwJ7k…
drive.google.com/file/d/0BxwJ7k…
4/ In this section of the 2011 Federalist Society Panel: A Federal Sunset Law, Philip Howard argues that our “junk pile” of federal laws & regulations results in spending too much on special education. @AndrewYang says Howard inspired his “Automatically Sunset Old Laws” policy.
5/ Look at @AndrewYang’s tweet again, please. “This country pays a lot of attention to its outliers. We should be paying more attention to the normal person.” Howard praises this as an “important insight” & adds “you can’t organize a society by the lowest common denominator.”
6/ @AndrewYang seems to notice when Howard quote-tweets him ⤵️, so I doubt he missed that one.
Yang has recommended Howard’s books, and in March, he suggested he would appoint Howard to a Council of Advisors. I do not believe Yang is unfamiliar with Howard’s egregious ableism.
Yang has recommended Howard’s books, and in March, he suggested he would appoint Howard to a Council of Advisors. I do not believe Yang is unfamiliar with Howard’s egregious ableism.
7/ Yang himself is guilty of egregious ableism, in his language & policies. There used to be a ~4-minute video on YouTube of Yang making offensive, ableist & fat-shaming jokes, but it was recently deleted. Yang’s appearance at the Iowa disability forum ⤵️:
8/ In a recent interview with the @DMRegister, @AndrewYang used ableist language when describing caregiver work, which he frames as a risky burden. (Yang even used the word “burden” to refer to special education funding in the December Democratic debate.)
9/ Sidenote: Yang also made some positive comments about disabled people during the debate, as did @ewarren, but she also lapsed into ableism when she referred to disabled people as “the least of they brethren.”🤯
Yang also said “special needs” SIX times.
Yang also said “special needs” SIX times.
10/ Yang constantly talks about how he will give every American a $1,000/month “Freedom Dividend” but he singles out certain benefits, including SSI disability, as something that disabled people would have to forgo in order to receive his dividend. This is blatant discrimination.
11/ Even worse, Yang uses obfuscating language & disinformation to explain his discrimination against disabled people. First, he claims that most disabled people collect both SSDI & SSI, when in fact only 10% do.
#CripTheVote
ssa.gov/policy/docs/st…
#CripTheVote
ssa.gov/policy/docs/st…
12/ Then, instead of simply stating that disabled people must give up SSI in order to receive UBI, he states that disabled people would have a “choice” between SSDI + UBI or SSDI + SSI. “A choice,” when 2.1 million people who receive SSI do not receive SSDI in the first place?!
13/ And why should the 1.3 million people who receive both SSDI & SSI be forced to make this “choice”? The other ~325 million Americans would get an EXTRA $1,000 added to their budgets, but disabled people, who face more challenges, higher costs & already have less $ would not?
14/ Here’s more disinformation from Yang about disabled people: “Even some people who receive more than $1000 a month in SSI would choose to take the Freedom Dividend because it has no preconditions.”
THERE ARE NO SUCH PEOPLE. The maximum amount one can receive in SSI is $771!
THERE ARE NO SUCH PEOPLE. The maximum amount one can receive in SSI is $771!
15/ @slooterman wrote about these & other probs with Yang’s UBI/Freedom Dividend (including how it could cause some disabled people to lose services necessary to our basic existence) & his other disability-related policies, such as they are. Please read!
vox.com/first-person/2…
vox.com/first-person/2…
16/ @RyanMarino recently wrote an excellent thread about another abysmal Yang policy: his opioid plan, which is so thoroughly misguided that it would worsen both the addiction crisis AND the pain patient medication access crisis! Who is advising this guy?!
17/ When I first considered Yang, I started with his autism policy. One of his sons has autism so I thought this policy would be insightful, comprehensive & imbued with parental expertise & concern. Instead like most of Yang’s policies, it can best be described as “barely there.”
18/ That’s it.
Direct the DOE to give states info & funding for programs to identify & treat autistic children. Destigmatize autism & related neurological profiles as commonplace & distinct.
That’s Yang’s autism entire plan.
This is typical of his “150 comprehensive policies.”
Direct the DOE to give states info & funding for programs to identify & treat autistic children. Destigmatize autism & related neurological profiles as commonplace & distinct.
That’s Yang’s autism entire plan.
This is typical of his “150 comprehensive policies.”
19/ Only about a dozen of Yang’s “150 policies” could possibly be considered “comprehensive.” Even most of those are relatively brief, so you can imagine why this vaguely attributed, undated quote ⤵️ on Yang’s site piqued my curiosity. (Yang launched his campaign on Nov 6, 2017.)
20/ The earliest reference I could find to this quote was in a Feb 13, 2019 Medium post, but it gave no source. A Feb 27th blogpost on nicoledieker.com also used this quote, and this time there was a link to the “Iowa Democratic Party Leadership” but that led only here ⤵️.
21/ Yang spoke at the 2018 Iowa Wing Ding on 8/10/18, so perhaps an Iowa Dem leader made this statement at that time. I listened to a few speakers but I didn’t hear it. Even so, “this stage in the campaign” included only ONE other candidate: @JohnDelaney.
22/ Using that quote is intentionally misleading.
Yang’s website is also filled with essentially meaningless pledges.
Ex: Yang promises to “ban anyone who serves in my administration from lobbying for a period of time after they leave their position.”
An HOUR is a period of time!
Yang’s website is also filled with essentially meaningless pledges.
Ex: Yang promises to “ban anyone who serves in my administration from lobbying for a period of time after they leave their position.”
An HOUR is a period of time!
23/ Yang has a law degree from Columbia University. He knows exactly what he’s saying. He knows it means nothing, and he knows that many people will believe it means something it doesn’t. That is the precise OPPOSITE of what I want in a president.
24/ I certainly ended up meandering! I intended to write about far-right influences on Yang’s policies but inevitably for me, every Yang topic leads back to his pervasive & dangerous ableism. I have more to say on the original topic, but I’ll save it for another day. #CripTheVote
Addendum:
