McMahon: Nuts

How remarkably coincidental that these two news stories were released yesterday. "Budget cuts decimate mental health services" and immediately adjacent "Tucson shooting suspect pleads not guilty".

Jared Loughner killed and wounded people in a savage, unwarranted attack. His defense team will have to plead that he's not responsible because he's clearly psychotic. That's the way trial law works in a civilized country.

But how can any civilized country justify stripping $1.8 billion from mental health services across the United States. Arizona alone has sliced $57 million from 14,000 mentally ill patients in the last two years.

We'll never know if any of those budget cuts could have had an effect on Jared Loughner's plans. What we do know is mental illness gets about the same amount of respect as Rodney Dangerfield.

There are no telethons for it - no poster children to remind us how we have to take care of those in need. Instead, you can see them in parks, under bushes, living in boxes because all too many of the seriously mentally ill in our stat have no where to go. Some right now may be thinking of moving to Tucson!