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Reporter’s Question: If Republicans are so quick to blame Mass Shootings on Mental Illness — WHY then have they been trying to cut Mental Health coverage guarantees from the ACA?
Huh, Mr Republican — Why do you hate America so much?
Trump Blames Shootings on Mental Illness. But He’s Spent the Past 2 Years Trying to Cut Access to Health Coverage.
“His general approach is to make it harder for people to access health coverage.”
Trump has been a long-time critic of the Affordable Care Act, most recently supporting a lawsuit that aims to strike down the ACA entirely. As Edwin Park, a research professor at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy, explains, the ACA requires insurers to cover mental health care and bars them from discriminating against individuals with pre-existing conditions, including mental illness.
“The research is very clear that the ACA significantly increased coverage, which in turn increased access to behavioral health treatment, mental health services, treatment for addition, that have all resulted in improved mental health for individuals who gained coverage,” Park said. “If you take that coverage away, certainly that would be a huge negative impact on mental health in the United States.”
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“The Trump administration has worked to roll back the ACA and insurance regulation, moving in the direction of less coverage of mental health, not more,” Larry Levitt, the executive vice president for health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, said via email. “The administration is arguing in court that the entire ACA should be overturned, including the expansion of Medicaid and benefit requirements, including for mental health.”
Other Reporter’s Questions that we do not hear nearly enough?
Mr McConnell, Why won’t you let Senators — elected by the People to speak for them — Why won’t you let them Vote on improving Election Security?
Mr McConnell, Why won’t you let Senators — elected by the People to speak for them — Why won’t you let them Vote on improving Gun Safety, including comprehensive Background Checks?
Mr Graham, Why are you promising to take away Affordable Health Care from millions of American?
Mr Trump, Why are promoting “Hate and Rage” in your rallies and tweets — and then turn around and promptly blame “Hate and Rage” for pulling the trigger, at Mass Shootings?
Mr Trump, Don’t other Countries have problems with Mental Health — with “Hate and Rage” — yet those other Countries don’t have nearly the same Mass Shooting problem America does. In your opinion, what explains that difference? Isn’t this one contest we don’t want to win?
Republicans haters — Why do you hate America so much? Is it because it is because of the Land of Free Speech, the Land of Opportunity, and Equal Rights for ALL?
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“Sometimes, journalists don’t just report the news: They can help a community or a country set an agenda,” said Bill Grueskin, a former Wall Street Journal editor who is a professor at Columbia Journalism School.
That means “shining a light on solutions as well as problems, and insisting on accountability all the way.”
Sounds right, but what does that mean in this situation? For Grueskin, it means a coordinated approach among large and small news organizations; it means much greater accountability from officials who are in a position to resolve the crisis (“including ask them on, say, a weekly basis, what they’ve done this week to address the issue”).
But, for Grueskin and others, one other requirement may be the toughest to approach: “It also means, alas, taking sides.”
Just as there was in the 1950s and 1960s while covering civil rights, or today in covering the climate crisis, there actually is a right or wrong side on the matter of controlling rampant gun violence.
Journalists need to be on the right side of that, and not afraid to own it.
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Asking the Question once and done — is not nearly enough, to actually force them to solve these national problems:
Mr Trump, WHY are you still separating kids from their families — despite court orders to stop — and still locking them up in “Unacceptable Conditions” according to the vice president?
Why are you such an online Bully? Aren’t you supposed be president of ALL the People?
WHY are you using race to divide the Country? … Sir, are you a Racist?
Isn’t Baltimore part of America too? Do they not Vote and pay Taxes, and expect help and support from their Federal Government?
Shouldn’t the President of the United States, unite the country, instead of divide it?
Isn’t that what would make America “great” … ?
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There is actually a “right and wrong” side to these issues.
The American people want greater accountability from officials who are in a position to resolve these problems.
Keep asking them the hard questions, until they must respond, and finally DO the job — that the American People sent them to D.C to do.
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Dear beleaguered Reporters, even if they don’t answer — the American People will have been better informed by your diligence and persistence, for when we have to Vote the bums — in or out — the next time around.
Dare to ask the tough Questions again and again — the American People NEED you to do so. (… you know, actually ‘make America great again’.)
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WHY is this “Domestic Terrorism” problem ignored (and effectively ‘condoned’) by the Republican party and the NRA — when they tritely (and hypocritically) blame it on the Mentally Illness?
Caring and compassionate minds, should want to know.
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