While many people could care less about their state budgets, they do however care for issues which directly impact them, or groups of their society which are deemed at risk. Following the decision to make poor people pay for the bus, there was a consensus by almost everybody that the decision was sickening and frightening. In fact, the low income elderly and disable riders of RIPTA, were backed by many activists and lobbyists, while RIPTA was all alone in its fight to advocate for the reasons why such a move was necessary. Barbara Polichetti, Director of Public Affairs for RIPTA asserted that historically, the free pass were minimal in costs and affordable to a certain extent, but with new poverty and Medicaid guidelines, along with the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, an unexpected spike in low income riders …show more content…
While a disability isn’t a death sentence, it isn’t a walk in the park either. People with disabilities struggle to find work, fit in, and enjoy certain aspects of life, most people enjoy. The same applies to the elderly. As age is subject to increase, the body is also subject to decay. Older people often deal with medical issues that are completely out of their hands. The stress of age alone is a heavy weight for them to bear, imagine adding not having enough money to enjoy life as the actors in AARP commercials do. The state and the people elected to represent it have an obligation to ensure the wellbeing of those that are vulnerable and in need of assistance, and making poor people pay for the bus goes entirely against that. This policy should therefore be dropped, reversed, discarded and never heard of again. It is simply counterproductive and rather unintelligent to provide millions in healthcare for the elderly and disabled, all while stressing them to death, with coercion into spending money they simply cannot