JFK was the President who set the ball in motion. Reagan actually was helping the Progs out on that. The cost of keeping people with Psyche issues in a hospital is expensive. To return to that we have to be smart on it and not let it become a money pit. Government entities wanted out of it.In 1981 President Ronald Reagan, who had made major efforts during his Governorship to reduce funding and enlistment for California mental institutions, pushed a political effort through the U.S. Congress to repeal most of MHSA.