Could The Obama Admin Make Life Any Harder For Business?
Apparently, yes. Today is the deadline for hoteliers to have pool lifts to provide disabled people "equal access" to pools and whirlpools. (They can also have a plan to acquire one.) If they don't, civil penalties can go as high as $55,000, USA Today reports.
Walter Olson blogs at Cato:
Because the elevator lifts are space-consuming, unsightly, potential hazards to curious children, and unlikely to be used very often, many pool operators assumed it would be enough to purchase a portable lift that could be wheeled over to poolside on user request and stored when not in use. No such luck: the Obama administration has announced that the lifts must not only be of permanent construction, but must apply to each separate "water feature", so that a pool with adjoining spa would need two of them. "Each lift costs between $3,000 and $10,000 and installation can add $5,000 to $10,000 to the total." Many budget hostelries are expected to simply shutter their pools until further notice rather than take the risk that entrepreneurial fast-buck artists will begin filing complaints against them for cash settlements, as in California's notorious ADA filing mills....The problem is more that this administration (and not just this one) has outsourced its thinking on the law to advocates in the legal academia-disabled rights-"public interest law" community, which tends to embrace interpretations and applications of the law geared to advance ambitious versions of social change.
I was going to say, "Have a nice swim!" but "Have a nice day of social change." Nothin' for nobody, brought to you by the Obama Administration's Social Engineering Department (which is probably pretty much the whole damn administration).
P.S. Love some of the comments on the USA Today piece. Here's one from Stuart J. Gray:
I used to work in specialty construction of shielded rooms. We had to install an electrical filter box and we put it on top of the metal room. The inspector came by and told me that it could not be on the "roof." It had to be less than 30 inches from the floor. I asked "WHY??" and he said what if an electrician needs to work in the box and he is in a wheelchair? WHAT???!?!? How many electricians are there in the entire WORLD that are in a wheel chair?? I bet - NONE!So I told him he had better lower all of those light fixtures (in the ceiling) in case the person coming to change the bulbs is in a wheelchair. He didn't think that was funny.
Robert Benning:
Is the path to the bottom of the Grand Canyon handi accessable? No...well close it down
Bryan Schnell:
@Robert, Everest isn't handi-cap accessible? Shut it down! As well as all further space exploration.
Paul Russell Wagner:
Don't forget the Statue of Liberty. No elevator or chairlift. Shut her down.
Never forget who signed this mother into law twenty years ago.
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at March 14, 2012 11:58 PM
And go look at thomas.loc.gov and see who wrote, sponsored and voted on it.
Radwaste at March 15, 2012 2:53 AM
>>Because the elevator lifts are space-consuming, unsightly, potential hazards to curious children
Hmm, how long until a child gets hurt by one of these contraptions and what happens then? Catch 22.
assholio at March 15, 2012 7:15 AM
You know, when every little thing gets blamed on Obama, it begins to lose its sting. I fail to see how this is his doing alone. Doesn't Congress make the laws?
wojo at March 15, 2012 8:00 AM
This is what happens when private property becomes public, see for example smoking bans.
Dave B at March 15, 2012 8:33 AM
Is there any reason already-built pools can't be grandfathered in?
NicoleK at March 15, 2012 1:11 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2012/03/15/could_the_obama.html#comment-3073321">comment from NicoleKKills the government cash flow.
Amy Alkon at March 15, 2012 1:59 PM
since i, and a lot of other people are allergic to concentrated government stupidity, (a real and permanent disability) can we get a law banning all stupid people from any form of government service ?
v at March 15, 2012 2:30 PM
Hmm. You need arms and legs to fly an airplane. Ban them!
Cousin Dave at March 15, 2012 7:29 PM
No, no, no Dave! Develop expensive equipment to let quadrapeligics control planes by blinking, and then require every aircraft to have one.
NicoleK at March 16, 2012 12:51 PM
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