Republicans Who Tout Mental Health As Response To Gun Violence Opposed Landmark Mental Health Law

[Fire Walk With Me]

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/01/17/1460601/republicans-claim-mental-health-gun-violence-solution/?mobile=nc

As Republicans rushed to oppose President Obama’s gun violence prevention proposals on Wednesday, several lawmakers released statements echoing the National Rifle Association’s suggestion that “fixing our broken mental health system” is actually the best way to prevent future gun crimes. But when Congress considered a landmark mental health access bill in 2008, many of the same Republicans voted against it.

Accessing mental health services in the United States is harder than accessing a gun. In 2008, Congress took a step toward addressing that issue by passing the long-delayed Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, which required most health insurance plans to start treating mental health services in the same way they treat all other medical care. The bill included exemptions for small businesses and those who opted not to cover mental health coverage at all, but House Republicans still overwhelmingly opposed the effort, 145 to 47.

(More at the link.)

[Cali_Democrat]

1. This is utterly shocking.

Republicans overwhelmingly opposed a law that helped certain people get more access to mental health care?

That can't possibly be true.

[Fire Walk With Me]

4. I know! When CA Gov. Ahnold (R) voted to cut mental health budgets by 60%, he was trying to help!

We're just not seeing it in the right way!

http://www.bing.com/search?q=schwarzeneger+mental+health+cut+60%25&form=MOZSBR&pc=MOZI

[Jackpine Radical]

19. Having done without mental health themselves all these years,

they saw no reason why anyone else should have it.

[Scuba]

2. No one could have predicted that.

[HangOnKids]

3. I've Been Waiting For That To Surface

Poor dears wailing "mental health" because it is the only way for them to deflect and distract people from putting GUNS into the equation, of course they voted against anyTHING that would have helped people. That why they are RePukeliCONS.

[samsingh]

5. is anybody surprised by this repug stupidity

[kairos12]

6. Beyond Stupidity They Are Flat Evil and Craven

[samsingh]

20. worse than that even

[HangOnKids]

8. No But I'm Sure The Pukes Think Everyone Will Be So Impressed

With their new compassion, all of their past history will just go POOF. They are incredibly STUPID. It hurts my head to try and understand.

[yardwork]

7. "Accessing mental health services in the U.S. is harder than accessing a gun."

And the Republicans built that.

[HangOnKids]

9. ^^^^^THIS^^^^^ n/t

[freshwest]

15. And guess who's paying for it - not them.

[phantom power]

10. dismantling the social safety net and then shooting the results is their goal

They *want* a distopian future with no safety net, a giant underclass and lawlessness. Where they can live out their fantasies of fighting off the roving hordes of poor lawless people. It'll be the ultimate live action video game.

[Fire Walk With Me]

13. To live like kings and queens and the rest of us as terrified peasants?

I've been saying that for a few years now as well.

Is it too speculative to tie this into the increasing meme of "Americans as terrorists" being used to slowly turn the country into a police state, with private prisons (funded by taxpayer dollars) advertising 90% occupancy rates? (Thanks to the "war on drugs".) Now they've got a new target.

[Recursion]

22. This can't be overstressed. They used to leave plausible deniability

But not anymore. It's what they explicitly want to do.

[etherealtruth]

11. "Accessing mental health services in the United States is harder than accessing a gun."

This should sicken and disgust everyone!

[Berlum]

12. Typical RepubliWanker horseshit

They just are not serious people. Congenital liars and fakers.

[ErikJ]

14. Didnt Reagan slash mental health/institition funding too??

Kicking the mentally ill to homelessness?

[Fire Walk With Me]

16. Yep. A very good point.

[Hekate]

18. Saint Ronnie was Governor of California when he did that

It must have seemed like such a good idea at the time: empty out the state hospitals, give the former patients a fistful of those nice new drugs to help stabilize them, and install them in a network of halfway houses. Save lots of money.

The problem was they skipped the second to last part: the halfway houses were never adequately funded at all.

We went from having almost no street beggars/homeless to having a very visible number. The County jails became the de facto mental health facilities as mentally ill were repeatedly picked up for minor infractions and then released back into the wild. Jailers had to be given courses in how to handle the mentally ill (differently from the common criminal as I am sure you can figure out).

It is worthwhile to ponder the meaning of the old-fashioned term "insane asylum." "Asylum" means a place of safety.

[Recursion]

21. Yep. And then Republican mayors used the resulting fallout as an excuse to force poor people...

... out of neighborhoods they wanted to gentrify.

Sigh.

[Hekate]

17. The country might wake up sane some morning, and then where would we be?

[Fire Walk With Me]

23. One kick.

[LeftInTX]

24. It's nothing but smoke and mirrors

They like to blame others for the problems they cause, just so they can cause more problems.

[ck4829]

25. Let's just make it harder for the mentally ill to get a gun! Problem solved!