Paul Ryan Throws Support Behind Mental Health Reform Bill

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House Speaker Paul Ryan vowed Thursday to take on mental health reform in the wake of a shooting that left 14 dead in California, throwing his support behind a mental health bill that’s been in the works for years.

In an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Ryan called mental health issues the “common theme” you see in mass shootings, along with attackers who are “terrorist-inspired.”

“We have not updated our mental illness laws in decades. This is a problem because mentally ill people are getting guns and committing mass atrocities,” he said.

Ryan said the House would be taking up Rep. Tim Murphy’s (R-PA) legislation, which Murphy spent a year researching after the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. That legislation calls for creating a Department of Health and Human Services assistant secretary position to address a shortage of beds in psychiatric wards, among other proposals.

Ryan also touted the House taking up efforts to end the U.S. visa waiver program, saying “we’ve already been working on refugees.”

“The last thing we want to do is rush to judge to quote-unquote ‘do something’ and then not actually solve anything,” he said.

The speaker also said he opposed using the No-Fly List as a measure for restricting gun purchases, saying many people are put on the list arbitrarily or by “mistake.”

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  1. Avatar for jcs jcs says:

    Mental illness = out of touch with reality!

  2. Hmm… seems that there’s another “common theme” in these mass shootings, but I just can’t seem to put my (trigger) finger on it…

  3. As much as I agree that more needs to be done in shoring up support (physical and financial) for the treatment of mental illness, I don’t want that to become sole focal point of the Rethugs. They have no problem pointing to the crazy while denying they created the crazy.

  4. Avatar for nova nova says:

    The speaker also said he opposed using the No-Fly List as a measure for restricting gun purchases, saying many people are put on the list arbitrarily or by “mistake.”

    okay, there are people on the no-fly list who are on there by mistake.

    so for these people:

    (1) not allowed to fly to chicago for wedding: OKAY
    (2) not allowed to purchase a god damned arsenal: NOT OKAY

    those priorities aren’t fucked up at all. not one bit.

  5. If Paulie had just ended his version of thoughts and prayers at “mental health issues”, we might be fooled into thinking Congress give a shit. But no. He’s on television so he must give his right wing nuts what they want so he has to include “terrorist-inspired” and remind of us opposition to restricting gun purchases. If Boner were still on the job he would cry for a moment to show he cared.

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