- McDemott: Doing something about it.
With suicides in the U.S. military now at an alarming one per day, Seattle Congressman Jim McDermott—the only psychiatrist in Congress—has been pushing a bill to fund increased suicide prevention for U.S. soldiers.
Last night, the Republican-controlled house passed the bill, and this morning McDermott spokesman Kinsey Kiriakos is pointing out that this is why it helps to have a Congressman who knows his way around D.C.
"This is a great example of why experience matters," Kiriakos says. "Knowing how the House works and understanding real-world realities is essential to being an effective legislator."
Though Kiriakos didn't mention the name of the Whippersnapper who's challenging McDermott this election season, this new McDermott achievement obviously cuts directly against two of the Whippersnapper's central critiques of the Congressman (that McDermott is too stridently lefty to be able to work across party lines, and that he doesn't actually get much done).
The McDermott-backed bill increases suicide prevention funding for soldiers by $10 million, paid for by cutting Afghan war funding by $22 million.
