Sac Bee Editor Tells Tall Tale in Preoccupation with Assemblyman Kiley
You can love or hate Kevin Kiley, but tell the truth about history
By Katy Grimes, August 15, 2022 2:32 am
The Sacramento Bee has a bull’s-eye on Assemblyman Kevin Kiley (R-Granite Bay), who is running for Congress in Congressional District 3. Kiley garnered the golden endorsement of former President Donald Trump.
The Bee’s recent headlines include: “California carnage: Why does Placer County Assemblyman Kevin Kiley hate his own state?” and “Kevin Kiley says California sucks. How about we rent him a U-Haul so he can move to Texas?”
In “Kevin Kiley says California sucks,” Senior Associate Editor Jack Ohman calls Kiley “the flyweight, dyspeptic GOP nominee for the Placer County-based 3rd Congressional district.”
Ohman says Kiley’s recent speech at CPAC “was perhaps the most intellectually dishonest speech I’ve ever heard except for every public utterance of his new hero, former President Donald Trump, who endorsed Kiley immediately before the 2022 primary.”
Ohman says “CPAC is a mentally ill theme park of alt-right grievance. This year’s conference in Dallas hosted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, an authoritarian loon who decried ‘peoples of mixed race’ and runs his country like an episode of ‘The Sopranos” meets the KKK.'”
Much hyperbole?
What so offended Editor Ohman in Kiley’s CPAC address, “A Warning to the Nation?”
“I am one of 19 Republicans in our State Assembly. Democrats control three-quarters of the Legislature. They hold every statewide office.”
“For years, this Supermajority caused California to decline – until our current Governor took office and brought that decline to a total freefall.”
“For the first time in history, more people are now moving out of our state than moving in. U-Haul has literally run out of trucks.”
This is all accurate.
Ohman continues: “In his speech, Kiley dropped several little gems about how much California sucks. I’ll annotate them for the purpose of intellectual honesty, which Kiley is flatly incapable of conveying. ‘In the progressive utopia of California,’ Kiley said, ‘you walk down streets that double as restrooms and injection sites.'”
This is also an accurate statement by Kiley, as I’ve documented in hundreds of photos and many news articles.
Then Ohman tells a big fat whopper: “Well, one of the reasons for this is that Gov. Reagan reduced mental hospital funding and ended mandatory commitment, for starters (note to readers: Reagan was a Republican), though Gov. Gavin Newsom is moving to change that. We have a lot of work to do to be sure, but California cities like San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles continue to be international destinations. And of course the streets of Granite Bay, where Kiley grew up are, oh, rather nice.”
One would assume that Senior Editor Ohman, who is the Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning, and won the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, could do a little research on this tall tale. All he had to do was check in the National Archives, which has been all over the news in recent days.
As I’ve reported for many years, don’t blame the homeless population in California on former Governor Ronald Reagan – he did not choose to close the state’s mental hospitals as the leftist media has incorrectly repeated for 50+ years – he was ordered to.
It was President John F. Kennedy who in his October 31, 1963 legislation –The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 — ordered the building of 1,500 mental health centers, while closing many mental health hospitals over time, known as deinstitutionalization. Governors were just required to execute on the President’s Order, while at the same time, Congress failed to fund the mental health centers. This was three weeks before Kennedy’s assassination.
Also called the “Mental Retardation Facilities and Community Health Centers Construction Act of 1963”), (Public Law 88-164, 77 STAT 282), the Act was “to provide assistance in combating mental retardation through grants for construction of research centers and grants for facilities for the mentally retarded and assitance [sic] in improving mental health through grants for construction of community mental health centers, and for other purposes.” 10/31/1963.”
You can read President Kennedy’s remarks on the signing of this bill at his Presidential Library here. “I am proposing a new approach to mental illness and to mental retardation. This approach is designed, in large measure, to use Federal resources to stimulate State, local and private action,” President Kennedy said. “When carried out, reliance on the cold mercy of custodial isolation will be supplanted by the open warmth of community concern and capability. Emphasis on prevention, treatment and rehabilitation will be substituted for a desultory interest in confining patients in an institution to wither away.”
“Only half of the proposed centers were ever built; none were fully funded, and the act didn’t provide money to operate them long-term. Some states saw an opportunity to close expensive state hospitals without spending some of the money on community-based care,” the Seattle Times reported in 2013 on the 50th anniversary of the Community Mental Health Act. “Deinstitutionalization accelerated after the adoption of Medicaid in 1965. During the Reagan administration, the remaining funding for the act was converted into a mental-health block grant for states.”
The lie about Ronald Reagan cutting funding for mental institutions is tragically repeated by those on the left because it fits their agenda and ignorant perspective of Republicans. You would think the left would exault President Kennedy for his altruistic attempt to reimagine institutionalization of the mentally handicapped.
This is Senior Editor Jack Ohman’s inconvenient truth in his preoccupation with Kevin Kiley, who is one of the few elected lawmakers to use his office to fight in the California Legislature, even as only one of 19 Republicans in the 80-member Assembly. Specifically, Kiley addressed against the “highest gas taxes,” exceedingly high public education costs, “billions in homelessness spending as tent cities just multiply,” and “where hammer-welding looters take over stores in broad daylight,” in his CPAC speech.
Kiley makes very clear in his CPAC speech that he loves and longs for his “once-great State of California,” but abhors the destructive Democrat policies which are chasing residents to freer red states:
“You see, we have a very different model for the nation. Our model for the nation is the one that created this nation – one with freedom at its foundation.
Educational freedom – putting parents in charge of their kids’ schooling
Economic freedom – recognizing the right to earn a living as fundamental
Medical freedom – respecting the personal autotomy of each individual
Religious freedom – putting worship and fellowship beyond the reach of any bureaucrat
This is the model that is sending Californians to Texas in record numbers – a mass exodus from blue states to red states across the country – and it is the model for an overwhelming Republican victory in the midterm elections.”
I’m struggling to find the “intellectually dishonest speech” Ohman charges.
You can love or hate Kevin Kiley, but tell the truth about history.
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Kevin Kiley is one of the very few bright spots in the California Assembly! If I were in his district I’d vote for him in a heart beat!
I don’t live in his district either and I donate regularly to his congressional campaign. The DNC has put a target on Kevin Kiley. His Democrat opponent is an Obama acolyte.
I suggest he sue them. They are a tottering weakling, hoping for Soros or Putin to buy them. The Sacramento Bee is the poster child for California’s decline.
I swear voters here either don’t exist at all or they all have the Stockholm Syndrome.
Seriously depressing is the fact that most voting adults in California fall for the relentless lies told by politicians and the media. “We’re not in a recession.” “We’re getting a handle on homelessness.” “California is a blueprint for the rest of country.” “You must sacrifice and suffer so we can save the planet from climate change.” “Mask prevent the spread of Covid.” Etc., ad nauseum.
I love Kevin Kiley. He is a fighter for the American people, fights for what is right and exposes the truth. He has come a long way in his public speaking reflecting back on his first televised debate. Great article Katy!
Sure, readers of The Globe know how honest, forthright, and accurate star Assemblyman Kevin Kiley is, but if anyone else ever had any doubt about it they would only have to read “Senior Assoc Editor” Jack Ohman’s nasty attacks on Kiley to obliterate that doubt. Kiley is like a cross to Ohman’s vampire. Wishing Kevin Kiley the very best in his run for Congress. We actually need an army of Kevin Kileys, not only in Congress, but in California, too. Wish I had a magic wand, because what a difference that would make!
Also always grateful to see another dirty lie exposed (again) in this Katy Grimes article, the “Reagan closed the state mental hospitals” lie, and with even more specific historical information than usual. As we know, the left just makes things up and repeats the rumors. For 50 years in this case! The true story of what happened is at the root of many of our problems in California and everyone needs to know the straight dope on it. The left’s filthy lies have real-world horror show consequences, as we have repeatedly seen.
Maybe Jack Ohman truly believes Kevin will win his district, why would he come out so viciously with this op-ed. This gives me hope!!!
When you’re getting a lot of flak, you’re probably over the target! Let’s hope so, anyway.
California lawmakers (mostly democrats as pointed out) are the laughing stock of legislators. Where else in the U.S. can you find a state so strangled by fees, ordinances and regulations? Politics in CA has established a new benchmark in the preposterous! What other state has a continuing decline of water, a Draconian distribution policy that favors some agri-business but not others? Why does a state with a declining population and little or no water need a high speed train draining the life out of our state budget?
Have we grown so numb or flaccid to allow this corrupting of our state? Yes, we have. Why is a crony-based newspaper calling out Kiley? Because he is willing to swim against the current of prevailing politics and point to the waste, the realities and the reason behind California’s decline.
Established news sources and I use the term loosely, have failed in the factual reporting of the goings on in Sacramento. No follow-up on the numerous and costly debacles set in motion through the pen of his majesty Gavin Newsom and his legislative eunuchs.
We need more Kevin Kileys.
Just got back from visiting the country of Malta. Pretty eye opening for a Californian. The country is an island surrounded by sea water with no streams, rivers or lakes. 100% of their water comes from desalination plants. Yet somehow California government needs more power and money to deal with the “climate emergency” that prevents them from delivering inexpensive, safe water to citizens and farmers. Shocking the level of corruption the vast majority of Californians put up with!
Just got back from visiting the country of Malta. Pretty eye opening for a Californian. The country is an island surrounded by sea water with no streams, rivers or lakes. 100% of their water comes from desalination plants. Yet somehow California government needs more power and money to deal with the “climate emergency” that prevents them from delivering inexpensive, safe water to citizens and farmers. Shocking the level of corruption the vast majority of Californians put up with! …Katy Grimes it would make an interesting article comparing water issues of Malta with California since California has even more coastline.
This is astonishing to read an article that is actually fact and not a silly tirade like Jack Ohman and all the Bee editorial staff are guilty of. I love the fact you pointed out that Reagan did NOT close these mental facilities because he wanted to; it was because he was ordered too. Hey Ohman, take a lesson from this write and turn in your Pulitzer for a Raspberry!
Katy,
Good job on Kiley and the Bee
The Sacramento Bee has been a Democrat propaganda outlet for decades. So no surprise here. The sad part is that most CA voters are of such low information or actually believe the lies put out by the propagandists, that they keep perpetuating this misery upon them (and the rest of us). No where else do you see so many people complain about the state of affairs that is inflicted on them by the people they continue to vote into office again and again.
Yes, the Bee has always leaned left, but at least thirty years ago it was a legitimate newspaper. Today, it’s laughable. The front page is graphics only. Inside are feature stories on fluff culture and trends. Genuine news articles are scarce. The caliber of everything at the Bee is low. It isn’t surprising that Ohman would stumble on the facts.