Political Quotes

“Mr. President, on October 31, 2013, Senator Blunt and I stood here on the Senate floor to mark a very important anniversary. It was 50 years to the day after President Kennedy signed into law the Community Mental Health Act. It was the last piece of legislation he was ever able to sign. As we know, his life was tragically cut short, and one important part of his life's work, that of providing full funding for comprehensive mental health services in the community, never came to happen. Instead, behavioral health is funded far too often through grants, and while these grants are important, they are just not enough. You would never say to somebody who needed heart bypass surgery, ``Yep, you need surgery, but so sorry; the grant ran out,'' which is what happens to someone with a mental health crisis or an addiction all the time. You wouldn't say to somebody with bipolar disorder or substance abuse--well, we actually would say, ``So sorry; the grant ran out,'' and we should not be saying that. Why should healthcare above the neck be funded differently than healthcare below the neck? This is something that Senator Blunt and I started to work on. We know that that should not be true. Healthcare is healthcare. President Kennedy understood this, and so does my friend Senator Blunt. Right, Senator Blunt?”