A Carter and a Kennedy Agree

More for mental health

The stage setting portended a momentous congressional hearing. Television lights cast their surreal glare on squads of reporters and photographers. Spectators lined up outside, hoping for a seat in the crammed Senate committee room. The star witness read from a long typed statement in a soft hesitant voice. Each of the six Senators present seemed to want to get in a few words, and three had had their statements copied and distributed in advance. The subject of all this high drama: mental health.

Why all the fuss over a subject that does not normally raise such passion? Rosalynn Carter, as honorary chairwoman of the President's Commission on Mental Health, was appearing before Senator Edward Kennedy's Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research. Washington tingled at the prospect. Not since Eleanor Roosevelt testified in 1945 about local affairs in the District of Columbia had a President's wife appeared before a congressional committee.

Rosalynn, who has been interested in mental health since her days as First Lady of Georgia, was disappointed that so little attention had been paid to the report of her commission last April. Among its 117 recommendations were improvement of care for the chronically mentally ill, incentive funds for states that develop community services and money for research into mental health problems.

Ted Kennedy met his witness in his private office, escorted her personally to the hearing table and adroitly placed himself in a situation where the wife of the President joined him in proclaiming the need for increased spending for social services. Budget-minded Jimmy Carter could only grin and bear it. But Rosalynn got in a political punch of her own. Alluding to the battle between Kennedy and her husband over national health, she said: "While I'm not here today to discuss the pros and cons of various national health insurance proposals--although I understand such a discussion is shaping up--the commission came out firmly for the inclusion of mental health care under any national health insurance plan."

Mrs. Carter even outdid the Senator in calling for new spending by taking issue with his assertion that there had been impressive gains in the amount allocated for mental health research. Taking inflation into account, she pointed out, research spending has declined in the past decade. But Kennedy got in the last word. He promised to study Rosalynn's recommendations carefully and, echoing one of Jimmy Carter's pet campaign phrases, added: "To quote a great American, 'You can depend on it.' " -

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.