Political Quotes

“I am here today and soon on the floor my good friend Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri will be here as well to talk about an issue that we both care very, very passionately about. In fact, on October 31, 2013, which I guess it is amazing how time flies, but in 2013, Senator Blunt and I stood here on the Senate floor together to mark a very important anniversary. It was 50 years to the day after President Kennedy signed into law the Community Mental Health Act--50 years to the day. And, tragically, it was the last piece of legislation he ever signed, and it was one of the most important. The Community Mental Health Act was groundbreaking; its goal, to provide full funding for comprehensive mental health services in the community. How important. Unfortunately, that has yet to fully happen. Instead, behavioral health is funded primarily through grants that start and then the grant stops. You would never say to someone who is having a heart attack: We would love to help you, but we are so sorry the grant ran out. Can you come back in 6 months? And yet that is what we say to people with mental illness or a substance abuse disorder. Every day, multiple times a day, that is what people hear. These people who need help aren't abstractions, they are our moms and dads and brothers and sisters and sons and daughters and friends and, in fact, us.…”