Republicans so love the pharmaceutical industry's money that they will gladly sacrifice your kids for them. It's nice how they're prepping the next generation of Americans dependent on medications to make it through breakfast.
How about mandatory psychological testing for elected officials? You can bet that every slide on the Rorschach test will be interpreted by Republicans as a dollar sign.
Grotesque.
This is from conservative website www.newsmax.com.
"One of the nation's leading medical groups, the Association of American Physicians & Surgeons (AAPS), decried a move by the U.S. Senate to join with the House in funding a federal program AAPS says will lead to mandatory psychological testing of every child in America - without the consent of parents.
When the Senate considered an omnibus appropriations bill last week that included funding for grants to implement universal mental health screening for almost 60 million children, pregnant women and adults through schools and pre-schools, it approved $20 million of the $44 million sought, Kathryn Serkes, public affairs counsel for AAPS, told NewsMax.
This $20 million matches a like amount already approved by the House, Serkes advised.
The HHS appropriations bill contains block grant money that will likely be used - as is often the case with block funding - by the various states to implement mandatory psychological testing programs for all students in the school system.
The spending bill has its roots in the recommendations of the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, created by President Bush in 2002 to propose ways of eliminating waste and improve efficiency and effectiveness of the mental health care delivery system.
Although the report does not specifically recommend screening all students, it does suggest that "schools are in a key position to identify the mental health problems early and to provide a link to appropriate services."
The bottom line, explained Serkes, is that a state receiving money under this appropriation will likely make its mental testing of kids mandatory - and not be out of synch with the federal enactment.
The other telling point, said Serkes, is that although the relatively minimal funding at this point is certainly not enough to fund mandatory mental testing for kids countrywide, it's an ominous start:
"Once it's established and has funding, a program exhibits the nettlesome property of being self-sustaining - it gets a life of its own. More funding follows."
Officials of the AAPS decry in the measure what they see as "a dangerous scheme that will heap even more coercive pressure on parents to medicate children with potentially dangerous side effects."
One of the most "dangerous side effects" from antidepressants commonly prescribed to children is suicide, regarding which AAPS added, "Further, even the government's own task force has concluded that mental health screening does little to prevent suicide."
Why do these jackals hate our kids? Just try to give my kid a mandatory psychologial evaluation. I will break my foot off in your ass.
Posted by brettdavey
at 12:33 PM EST
