The treatment of mentally disabled is what nightmares are made of. These groups as adults are the most likely group to be incarcerated and subject to hate crimes. In State institutions, their primary care is provided by employees that do not have adequate training or skills to understand the disabilities and often the mentally ill are abused in these institutions. As adults, their support system is lost and they are totally reliant on the dysfunctional government to advocate for them.

While there are a few corporate employers that provide employment for the higher functioning disabilities in fast food or service industry, they encounter a public that lacks education and empathy for their plight.

If the voices for guns, baggy pants, gay marriage were as strong for child abuse, mental disabilities the world would be a better place.

Very nice, Clay. The layoffs the state has planned to balance the budget are really going to hit mental healthcare hard. I guess that's a constituency that doesn't tend to vote.

Today's cartoon is another Bennett classic. I'm not sure any of us realize how difficult it is to express an opinion without using words. Think 'Pictionary' with a point of view. I've heard and read interviews with other cartoonists who seem to look at these kind of cartoons as the most challenging to conceive.

What seems to be a rare feat for others in the field, however, is just another day at the office for our boy, Clay. I just looked at his last 15 cartoons, and only one of them had a caption.

I was impressed with Clay's work from his very first days at the Times Free Press, but the consistent quality of his cartoons over the year-and-a-half since then, has been really astounding.

What are you going to do guys? The money just isn't there. It's amazing to me that people don't look at these cutbacks and say,"hey! you know what? Maybe our government is over extended." Instead, all you can do is seem to consistently find the big bad "Republican in the haystack."

When tax revenues are low, a government has no other way to raise cash for all of these programs. That's why a business model based on profitability (i.e. encouraging the private sector to handle this societal need) is your best bet. At the very least, a well run company in this field will have enough money to maintain the service when the economy is in one of these cyclical downturns.

Champ1- It's not a question of balancing the Tennessee budget. The question is: At whose expense?

That decision seems to have been made (at least where job layoffs are concerned), with over 550 of the 700 additional layoffs coming from mental health services.

These are the people who need our help most. I don't think you could find budget cuts with a more devastating effect if you tried.

Sad but true, the weakest link in a chain is aways the first to break. There are millions that could be removed from the budget if the state govt would get past political correctness, special interest pressure and bad past commitments. The unions faced reality and started to deal with GM didn't they?

Exactly right EaTn

Eatn, I hate to break this to you but the U.A.W. didn't lose anything in that G.M. deal. The rank and file took a hit, but the leadership is now stronger than ever.

Where do you think the cuts should come from toonfan?

At first, I asked myself what could I possibly say on this subject that hasn't already been articulated a thousand times. And I am still not sure that saying anything would even make a difference.
This is a case of ' no winners and everybody loses'. But when you have little or no money to work with, what do you do?
Not even prioritizing will help.
Wherever one 'cuts' in order to spend somewhere else, just as necessary, somebody loses.
Even those who get funds won't have enough to the job they wanted to do.
Mental Health Care,Health Care in general, Education (elementary and secondary), when the dollars aren't there, who do you cut and by how much?
It's a rhetorical question, at best, and a 'moot point', at this point.
No, the real question is how did my state representatives spend my tax dollars when they had them? That's a question that begs to be asked and if you are lucky enough to get an honest answer to it, that might be a representative worth holding onto when the next election cycle comes around.
It's almost too easy to find ways of spending someone else's money during the goodtimes. It's only during the 'not-so-good-times' you discover how well they actually did.
As I indicated earlier this likely won't make a bit of difference, but I got it out of my system.
Thank you for your time and attention,
Woody

Woody said:
"At first, I asked myself what could I possibly say on this subject that hasn't already been articulated a thousand times"

I have a 18 month old grandson that will sit and watch the same Elmo video from Sesame Street over and over. We all have a little kid in us and like to read repetitive things of interest. So Woody, I'm sure anything you say, as repetitive as it may be, will be of interest. Half of us won't agree with you and may call you are a moron for making such a ridiculous statement, but we really appreciate everyone taking time to share their thoughts.

In the interest of being repetitive:) I'll pose a question I've asked before. Why is it when budget cuts are made that most of them seem to come from health care, education, and emergency services. Nothing seems to happen to the hundreds of little bureaucracies that cost us soooo much money in so many ways. All the licensing, regulating, inspecting, and on and on. I'm sure some of it is necessary but good grief - why do have government employees worried about auctioneers being licensed? Regulating taxicabs (a racket as far as I'm concerned)? Can we say politics and special interests maybe? I'm sure they think if they cut critical items instead of junk, they can justify more taxes.

Speaking of more taxes, who's excited about annexation?

aae1049,

And now, with so much stress, more and more people apply for help. The rate of domestic abuse goes up as people lose jobs, and the rate of drinking and drug use also goes up, as well as suicides, robberies, etc.

Have you noticed a rise in incidents?

Clara

You are so right, the first to suffer will be the weakest and most dependent. There are those that people the chldren and spouses are property, and will abuse them as their stress levels increase. While the gov cuts spending for these groups, they are not cutting areas that the public can do without.