Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Another Side Of The Coin (or lack thereof)


Tax cuts, budget cuts. Teabaggerism. Is this surprising?

In the past year, Pima County, Ariz., where Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 19 others were shot Saturday, has seen more than 45 percent of its mental health services recipients forced off the public rolls, a service advocate told The Huffington Post.

The deep cuts in treatment were protested strongly at the time, with opponents warning that they would result in a spike in suicide attempts, public disturbances, hospitalizations and brushes with the police. But according to Clarke Romans, executive director for southern Arizona's branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the state government ignored requests for relief, citing the need to implement strict budget controls.



This is why teabaggers bug me so much. It's not their smugness, their embrace of the fringes of birtherism, racism, their unbridled anger. (Okay, it's those, too; but they're not foremost.) It's their simple-minded solutions to complicated problems; their steadfast refusal to include facts or consequences in their autistic repetitions: cut taxes, cut wasteful spending, and everything will be fine. Ronald Reagan taught us that.

(What? It didn't work? La la la la I can't hear you.)

So Arizona, among the teabaggiest examples of governance teabaggerism, slashes spending on mental health care. Because people are no longer willing to see money going to anyone but themselves, because their idea of patriotism doesn't include any sense of commonality with any others -- especially those of differing color -- they vote "no," and states make Draconian cuts. And, to the aggressive apathy of teabaggers, the cuts start with the most needy and defenseless. How could it hurt me, the teabaggers (fail to) ask? Who cares, they imply, from the depths of their Christianity.

This is how it hurts. It's not the only way; just a hard-to-ignore way. Cutting public health services, cutting education: it's the frog in warming water. Can't feel a thing. Not now, anyway. Besides, I got mine. And lookee my tax bill.

9 comments:

  1. So its YOUR fault...
    Partially anyway, since your still payin those Obscenely Low Bush Tax Rates...
    You probably paid the Reagan ones too, while I didn't.
    I didn't make enough money the whole 80's to pay taxes.
    Except that one lean year, but the Plasma Center never sent a 1099...and the Statue of Limitations is long over...
    and I'll stop talkin' bout' it' Willis when you stop usin the "T" Word.
    Seriously, would you use that word in front of your mother?
    Bad example, and my Mom's a T-Word and she's not racist/smug/ or angry, and she's pretty sure the President(Peace be upon Him) was born in the USA.
    I mean no one can prove he wasn't.
    Seriously, figure out what you would pay under Clinton Rates, show me a reciept to NAMBLA or Green Piece, or even the Democrat National Committee, and I'll DOUBLE it!!!!!!!!
    and the only charity I help out is the Girl Scouts.
    Those Thin Mints are GOOD.....:)

    Frank

    ReplyDelete
  2. They can give tax refunds for the expenses incurred by families who have a mentally ill member. This will allow families to send the ill member to a private facility of their choosing rather than their only choice being the state run mental health hospitals. Won't competing facilities foster improved care faster than a state run monopoly? Problems can be dealt with without growing govt, ya know.

    Maybe even let them use HSAs; oh wait, they are being phased out by Obamacare so I'm not sure if that's allowed.

    Regards,
    PT

    p.s. I'll give the dems credit, you guys never do let a crisis go to waste! You've turned a horrendous act by a kook into a rallying call for increased govt mental health svcs that wouldn't have even prevented the act as well as villified a conservative politician for using imagery that has been used previously by both parties (equivalency, I know).

    Of course, your serpentine efforts are going to backfire. Consevative politicians and commentators are going to tone down their strong language which will attract more independents.

    ReplyDelete
  3. PT: really? Tax refunds will cover private mental health care? I assume you were being ironic, but it's hard to tell.

    The RWS™ will tone down their rhetoric. More irony, I guess.

    But hope springs eternal, and I'm there.

    ReplyDelete
  4. PS, PT: you're right about one thing, though. God forbid that when something happens to demonstrate a problem that we should address it. Any problem at all. That would be, well, like beefing up security after 9/11: shameless politics for its own sake, just an example of using a crisis for... uh... whatever you call it when you try to improve stuff based on new information.

    We should keep doing whatever it is we're doing, no matter what we learn, because that's conservatism. Right?

    Originalism, is what you call it. Right?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Your right Sid,
    We need to address problems in a spirit of bi-partisinship.(how the EFF do you spell tha word? can u tell I'm in the OR?)
    Henceforth, I propose all 1968 Oldsmobiles, NO, ALL Automobiles Sold/Registered in America be equipped with Breathalyzer/Interlock/SCUBA equipment, in memory of Mary Jo Kopeckney.
    It'll be called "The Hot Secretary Protection Act of 19-69"(get it? "69")

    and I know its not 1969, its like how Obama Care is/was "The watever watever bla bla bla Affordable Healthcare act of 2009", even though it wasn't signed until 2010.

    and I made out a blank check to the Democrap National Commie-tee, just show me how much YOUR gonna pay...

    Frank

    ReplyDelete
  6. In the OR. Explains it. Check the hoses once again, Frankie. The surgeon could fall into your lap, with a leak like that.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sid, I'm an "Ologist", We don't check HOSES, we have CRNAs to do that...I spend about as much time in the OR as Obama does at Nascar races..
    and By "OR" I mean the entire Operating Suite, including, but not limited to lounge, PACU, Pre-Op, front desk, and theres even a "Call Room" where you can sleep when your on call, dont know why they call it that, works just as well at 2pm on a Tuesday...
    Sure I occasionally, give CRNAs lunch breaks, but I haven't checked a scavenging system since I pretended to check em during residency.
    If theres a leak, you'll fall asleep and the patient will wake up, DUH!!!
    and can't you just come out of the closet and admit you like the Bush Tax Rates, its freeing actually, like when I admitted my attraction to Hilary Clinton...

    Frank

    ReplyDelete
  8. Got a new Mac, and just noticed the spelling. "Dispair"?

    Sheesh.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ha. Hadn't noticed (although in retrospect there was a slight funny feeling...)

    ReplyDelete

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