Oh, Newt… They Want You to Stop Speaking Now

We’ve seen quite a change in Republican rhetoric since Powell went on Meet the Press and blasted his own party for being jerkfaces. Case in point, Republicans just introduced a bill that says Congress won’t get paid if they can’t pass a budget by May, and the House will vote on it today. And yesterday? Well, yesterday was the 40^th anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade decision, and the anniversary passed with nary a comment on legitimate rape or something equally egregious.

Is this the transformation of the Republican party? I like a decent two-party democracy, so I’m hoping that more moderate politicians and topics come out of the woodwork in the coming months, but I wonder if there can ever be true progress when you have people like Newt Gingrich in positions of power. Yesterday Gingrich decided to pontificate on the gun control issue. That’s to be expected—even warranted. It’s the stream of his thoughts that left many disoriented and slightly nauseated.

He looks slightly put off by his own words, doesn’t he?

You see, at first, he advocated for more research on mental health issues before passing any new gun control laws. Okay, that’s rational. Some would argue that we have a lot of research on gun violence, mental illness, and even mass murderers, but hey—more research and information and understanding is not a bad thing. Some would argue that the time to control access to assault rifles and extended magazines and purchasing guns at gun shows with no background check is now (after yet another shooting yesterday), but these are items up for discussion.

Then, however, Newt started to slip off the edge of reality:

“As a result of the deinstitutionalization of mental health over the last 30 years, there are a significant, small group of people who are on the streets who clearly would have been judged dangerous 20 or 25 years ago. When you talk mass murders…that we’ve seen with Newtown and others, Virginia Tech, for example or Aurora, I think that’s a limited enough number of cases. You could actually put together a study that asks what are the common behaviors, what are the common patterns because that’s a very specific number of people.”

So, deinstitutionalization was a BAD thing? There’s no research that says that. Now, the lack of facilities overall (which followed), and the fact many facilities have never been adequate… that’s another topic. Then we have enough cases to further research mass murderers, but only a limited number? Actually, there’s been plenty of mass murderers in our history—guns being their weapon of choice isn’t even a new thing. The first mass shooting was documented in the 1960s.

It gets worse. Gingrich went on to say every gun being used in Chicago is illegal. That’s actually not true. Illinois representatives have introduced state legislation this month that would ban all assault rifles and extended (30) magazine clips. There would be no grandfather clause, and you would be required to turn in your weapons, if passed. Similar bills have died on the state Senate floor.

Gingrich then made a sharp turn to the right and dissed patient privacy. He stated that HIPPA (the set of laws that protects your medical privacy as a patient) has prevented us from identifying and treating the mentally ill. He apparently is not aware of the confidentiality laws that surround mental health care—and have for decades– including the requirements of psychologists and psychiatrists to report suspected abuse (hot lining), and to turn patients in to the appropriate authorities if they suspect they are a danger to themselves or others, and their ability to hospitalize patients for at least 72 hours on a signature alone. HIPPA has done nothing to change that—as any good Law and Order episode has shown us.

When it was pointed out to him that HIPPA passed through Congress on his watch as Speaker of the House, he then made another sharp turn and attacked Obamacare—saying:

“Everything we’ve seen so far about government bureaucracies is {SIC} being lived out in this area: anti-competition, anti-new technology done at the convenience of the bureaucrat. If you would like the doctor to be more focused on the patient and you’d like the doctor’s office to cost less, to what extent is unnecessary paper technology {SIC}.”

Huh? I don’t even think that’s a complete sentence.

Then Gingrich knocked the FDA as red tape… stating that they “retard the development” of regenerative medicine and neurological research. Actually, he said brain research, but I couldn’t bear to place that statement in the same sentence that has the word ‘retard’—even if it is being used appropriately.  As if the FDA—who is there to protect us, but openly admits that they aren’t doing the best job because they’ve been routinely underfunded and understaffed by Republicans—is trying to stop regenerative medicine. Do you remember what regenerative medicine is? IT’S STEM CELL RESEARCH.  Who blocked stem cell research and advancement in this nation last decade?

I’ll give you two guesses.

The best part, however, is when Newt brought it back full circle. After having called for further research on the part of Congress into mental and medical health concerns and mass shooters, he wrapped up by stating:

“These areas will be very ripe to have hearings and bring in the people doing the real research, you know, cut beyond the lobbyists and cut beyond the Washington trade associations and listen for a while to people who are right at the edge of extraordinary breakthroughs. In some places now there are breakthroughs … but the government bureaucracy’s understanding of the science is way behind what’s actually happening in the laboratory.”

True that, Gingrich. I don’t think you guys have a clue what’s going on in the mental health or medical fields, how it does (and doesn’t) relate to an assault rifle ban, and I don’t think that subjecting professionals in the field to MORE Congressional research and hearings is going to do you a damn bit of good. Technically, you even said so yourself.

Or is this all a plot to run circles around logic and confuse the American people? Now, THAT may make more sense…

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Photo Source- by Gage Skidmore