Police Arresting Angry Members of the

Disabled Community Who Are Picketing White House

April 27, 2009 2:09 PM

ABC News' Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller report:

Police have started to arrest some of the disabled protestors picketing outside the White House right now. Almost all of the 400 demonstrators are = in wheelchairs.

"Shame on you, Obama is a liar! Shame on y= ou, Obama is a liar!" some are chanting.

They're here from all over the country -- Texas, Montana, New York, Pennsylvania -- to protest what they see as President = Obama not sufficiently supporting the Community Choice Act, a bill that = would amend the Social Security Act to provide those with disabilities and older Americans the ability to use federal funding for community-based attendant services instead of just for nursing homes.

ADAPT wants the Community Choice Act to be included as part of the overall health care reform package. The White House says that President Obama supports CCA, but whether or not it's part of t= he overall health reform effort hasn't been decided.*

White House health care czar Nancy-Ann DeParle met with some members of ADAPT this morning, and according to a White House sou= rce, DeParle told the activists the issue has not ye= t come up in her discussions with Congress. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Rep. Danny Davis, D-Illinois, introduced the bill last month.**

"The President supports CCA and was in fact a co-sponsor of it when he= was in the Senate," says the administration's spokesperson for health refo= rm, Linda Douglass. "He hasn't signed it into law because there is nothing= to sign yet. It was introduced at the beginning of the year and has been referred to the Energy and Commerce Committee."

"Take me inside with you right now and I'll call = Obama a f------ liar to his face," says Peggy Dougherty, 69, from Easton, Penn, who= has handcuffed herself to the White House gate.

Dougherty, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, has an Obama/Biden pin on her purse. She voted for the Democratic ticket, she says. "He m= ade a promise and he broke it," she says.

Many of the protestors here today are members of the disability rights g= roup ADAPT. <= strong>According to an "action alert" sent by the C= enter for Disability Rights, ADAPT members were told by that "(d)espite featuring the Community Choice = Act (CCA) prominently in the presidential campaign, President Obama's administration, including Ms. DeParle, has again demonstrated that they are unwilling to take leadership and capitalize on t= he promise of healthcare reform to pass CCA. ADAPT has been part of prior meet= ings with the Obama administration which also failed= to yield any commitment to call for CCA to be part of healthcare reform."=

Continues the action alert: "In response to the O= bama administration's refusal to demonstrate leadership, ADAPT activists have chained and handcuffed themselves to the Whitehouse fence. They are refusing to leave until President Obama fulfils= his campaign commitment to support passage of the CCA. ADAPT is demanding that President Obama create the change that Ame= ricans with Disabilities need: the Community Choice Act!"

"This is about choosing to live in our homes in our communities instea= d of nursing homes," says Milagros Franco, from the B= rooklyn Center for Indepen= dence of the Disabled.

"I'm a survivor of a nursing home," says Eileen "Spitfire" Sabel. "I could tell = you stories that would curl your hair."

As senators, both President Obama and Vice Pres= ident Biden co-sponsored the Community Choice Act. During the campaign, then-Sen. Obama said the "legislation is vitally important to the independence, community integration, and equality of hundreds of thousands of Americans with disabilities," that it will help to empower them "to take full advantage of their talents" and "ensure that everyone can live independently as full citizens in their communities.”

A man in a wheelchair handed me two ADAPT fliers. "The squeaky wheel gets the grease," says one. Reads another: "You think prison is b= ad, trying living in a nursing home."

- Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller

* This post has been updated with newer information as to what DeParle told the activists from ADAPT.

** UPDATE: Harkin communications director Kate Cyru= l emails us to say: "Discussions about what will and will not be in the health reform package are currently underway, and no final decisions have b= een made. Senator Harkin has made clear that any health care reform package is incomplete if it does not address the right of individuals with disabilities to choose to live in the community and receive supportive care, services they are currently entitled to only in an institutional setting.&n= bsp; Senator Obama was a cosponsor of the Community = Choice Act in the 110th Congress, and made support for the legislation a key part = of his disabilities platform during the campaign."