Matt Drudge cries ‘Nanny State’

The federal government is launching an online self-help guide for Americans dealing with mental-health issues caused by the economic crisis, said Chris Good in The Atlantic. And the Right is cackling over it, as typified by the Drudge Report headline, “Nanny State: Government Website to Warn of Sadness/Crying Over Economy.” But the mental-health threat posed by the recession is real—and mocking the government effort won’t change that fact.

“Well, yeah, I’ve been pretty damned irritable,” said conservative commentator Michelle Malkin in her blog, “from paying for the bazillion-dollar bailout bonanza, porkulus, TARP crap, GIVE/SERVE Trojan horse, S-CHIP health-care Trojan horse, etc. etc. etc.” And now, once again, we see that “the government’s prescription for pain is ... more government.”

Boy, Drudge is as out of touch as Republican politicians, said liberal radio host Taylor Marsh in her blog. "As if financial crisis or a job loss in a family or a life couldn't cause someone to collapse or feel totally overwhelmed." This is the conservative solution, "crying 'wussy'"?

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Forgive the skeptics who don't believe the federal government, which helped create the mess, can ease our pain, said Michael Laprarie in Wizbang. "This only makes me wonder how the Obama administration will use the alleged fragile mental health of the nation to justify yet another federal power grab." Maybe this is the first step toward federalizing all mental-health services.