{"id":4987,"date":"2011-06-02T03:01:18","date_gmt":"2011-06-02T10:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=4987"},"modified":"2011-06-02T03:01:18","modified_gmt":"2011-06-02T10:01:18","slug":"republican-assisted-suicide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/02\/republican-assisted-suicide\/","title":{"rendered":"Republican Assisted Suicide"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my years as a volunteer firefighter, standing by and doing nothing, while someone died, would have driven me crazy.  However, that\u2019s exactly what firefighters in California had to do, because Republicans gutted their budget, so they were unable to obtain the training or procure the equipment they needed to do their job.  I imagine the right will say \u201cSo what?\u201d, because the victim was a suicide, but I say it was Republican assisted suicide, and that the Republican party is pro death.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"2firefighters\"Firefighters in the city of Alameda, CA outside of San Francisco were forced to watch a man drown today due to a policy tied to recent budget cuts<\/strong>. First responders and more than 75 onlookers watched as the man committed suicide, drowning himself over the course of an ho\u2019ur<\/strong> ein the San Francisco Bay. First responders were called to the scene. But according to interim Alameda Fire Chief Mike D\u2019Orazi, due to 2009 budget cuts, his crews \u201cdid not have the training<\/a> or cold-water gear to go into the water.\u201d<\/p>\n

While this is a dramatic example of the impact of local budget cuts, it serves as a perfect illustration of the problems Republican budget cuts pose to first respondents<\/strong>. This tragedy comes on the heels of the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee\u2019s approval of a Republican proposal last month \u201cto slash funding for first responders<\/a> by more than $1 billion<\/strong>.\u201d This \u201cincluded significant cuts to the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) and Assistance to Firefighters (FIRE Act) grant programs,\u201d as well as \u201cslashed funding for nearly every first responder grant program, including the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) and State Homeland Security (SHSGP) grants\u201d by over 50%\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Think Progress<\/a>><\/p>\n

The desire to prematurely end one\u2019s own life, barring excruciating pain stemming from a terminal condition, is a form of mental illness.  This man deserved the help Republicans denied him, because the US has always been a nation where we take care of our own\u2026 until now.  How many other people will die because Republicans cut the safety net they need?  This is RepubliCare.  Everything is provided for millionaires and billionaires.  The rest of us get the RepubliCare Death Benefit.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my years as a volunteer firefighter, standing by and doing nothing, while someone died, would have driven me crazy.  However, that\u2019s exactly what firefighters in California had to do, because Republicans gutted their budget, so they were unable to obtain the training or procure the equipment they needed to do their job.  I imagine […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4987\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}