In the wake of last December’s shooting massacre in Newtown, CT, many conservative lawmakers and state leaders called for strengthening America’s broken mental health care system. But now, the GOP’s stubborn opposition to Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion is preventing 1.2 million poor and mentally ill Americans from getting basic mental services, according to an analysis by the National Alliance on Mental Illness NAMI.
Republican politicians have argued extensively for shoring up the U.S. mental health regimen to prevent future shootings. Rep. Louie Gohmert R-TX said that mental health issues have “languished” for decades, and that the two parties can easily come together to fix them. Sen. Ted Cruz R-TX voted against the compromise Manchin-Toomey background check bill, offering alternative legislation focused on school security and mental health resources. Florida Rep. Ander Crenshaw R also cited mental health services as an important part of addressing gun violence, as did Sen. Marco Rubio R-FL, who signed onto Cruz’s gun safety bill.
Despite their professed zeal for making the U.S. mental health regimen stronger, however, these members of Congress don’t support the programs like Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion that could actually help ensure Americans’ access to those benefits.
Yet another datapoint regarding the endemic hypocrisy of the GOP. After the Newtown massacres, these same people claimed that limiting guns wasn’t the answser, expanding access to mental health services was a better way to go.
And now…they are trying to stop any funding going to their own “better” solution. That’s hypocrisy on a very high level. GOP-level.
Robot Pirate Ninja 