July 29, 2010: Conservative Columnist Attacks Americans with Disabilities Act

Ross Douthat. [Source: New York Times]Conservative columnist Ross Douthat, writing for the New York Times, attacks the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA—see July 26, 1990), calling it a “feel-good” bill that has not actually done anything to increase employment of the disabled. Its “benefits are obvious,” he writes, but its “drawbacks tend to be more hidden,” including “costs the [ADA] seems to have imposed on the disabled as well as the non-disabled.” [New York Times, 7/29/2010] The ADA was sponsored by Congressional Democrats and signed into law by then-President George H. W. Bush. The ADA “prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in employment, transportation, public accommodation, communications, and governmental activities.” Recently, it has been attacked by conservative pundits and candidates, largely because businesses have to spend money to comply with its mandates. [Media Matters, 9/7/2010; US Department of Labor, 2011] Republican candidate Rand Paul has made similar claims (see May 17, 2010).