Nationally syndicated radio host Thom Hartmann wrote an article Saturday blaming “the corporate right-wing agenda” for driving thousands of Americans to suicide.

“The very same austerity policies that Republicans in Washington are constantly pushing on us are the same policies that are driving Americans to kill themselves,” he wrote.

Mr. Hartmann said that over the past decade, the nation’s suicide rate has risen a staggering 23 percent.

“The fact is, America’s suicide rate is on the rise, and Conservative economic policies are to blame,” he said. “In a study released in May, Professors David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu of Oxford University in England found that suicide rates in both the U.S. and U.K. increase when working class wages and wealth decline.”

In their report, Mr. Stuckler and Mr. Basu concluded that, “what we’ve learned is that the real danger to public health is not recession per se, but austerity.”

“That’s right,” the radio host continued. “The very same austerity policies that Republicans in Washington are constantly pushing on us are the same policies that are driving Americans to kill themselves.”

Mr. Hartmann then argued that in order “to stop the epidemic of austerity-driven suicides,” the government needs to invest and spend more, not less.

“Remember, when Republicans talk about how bad the economy is, they’re bragging,” he said. “Conservative economic policies, from austerity to sequester to Reaganomics, kill people. Now that the science is in, and irrefutable, it’s time to wake Americans up to this deadly con game.”

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