Re: Medicare Means Test

"Gretchen Evans" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> On Sun, 9 Nov 2003 02:10:47 -0700, "Founding Father" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> wrote:
>
> >
> >"Gretchen Evans" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> >news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >> On 7 Nov 2003 12:54:34 -0500, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Herman
> >> Rubin) wrote:
> >>
> >> >Libertarians would pay a lot less if they only funded the
> >> >military and related budget, and you totalitarians had to
> >> >fund the much greater welfare budget.
> >>
> >> I assume that the standard policy of the libertarians is to simply
> >> allow the less fortunate die in the steets to save funds? Good
> >> thinking, with your plan we've got a massive military and people
> >> starving.
> >>
> >> pixie
> >
> >You tell us - when did homelessness become a "structural problem" -
before
> >or after the Great Society and its massive increases in social welfare
> >spending?
> >
>
> We've always had some homeless as anyone with common sense would
> admit.. A large portion of the problem came about when the Reps...
> under the addled Ronnie... made he decision to dump all the marginal
> psych cases out of confined care and into the streets.
>
> Just one more example of their brand of 'compassion'
>
> pixie

There you go again.  I can't tell if you're lying or just relentlessly
ignorant, so filled with hatred of Reagan and the right that you just
mindlessly parrot the lies that the left wing media spew forth.

Deinstitutionalization started in the 60s and was largely a fait accompli by
the end of the 70s.  As I recall, it was largely a
group of fanatics opposed to the idea that mental illness is a disease.
They were aided by activist lawyers who did everything possible to prevent
treating these patients "against their will."  Even now it is almost
impossible to institutionalize violent repeat offenders who are mentally
ill.  ALCU types even go around to street people and tell them they have a
"right" to stay on the street in the freezing cold.  The left is even
raising a big stink :-) about laws prohibiting public defecation.  As usual,
it's the liberals messing things up.

Beyond that, it is not even clear that deinstitutionalization actually
caused homelessness.  See the following (and note that this is from a
decidedly left wing source):

Deinstitutionalization and the Homeless Mentally Ill
by H. Richard Lamb
http://www.interactivist.net/housing/deinstitutionalization_1.html

A Brief History of Deinstitutionalization
http://www.interactivist.net/housing/deinstitutionalization_2.html