Let’s call the Republicans in Congress what they really are: spineless liars. One can conclude nothing else when looking at their latest attempt to repeal (or replace, or fix, or lie about) “Obamacare”, aka “The Affordable Care Act”. The coming vote today is just another step in a multiyear farce.
So what do we know today? Republicans in the House are likely to pass their latest “repeal” bill. It comes after a bit of frankly ridiculous “negotiating” and flat out vote buying. And some are admitting the reality: this bill stinks and we are voting for it anyway. Their rationale:
- We said we would so we are
- This will make the president happy
- We’re going on vacation again at the end of the week, so when we get home we can say we did something
- It won’t pass the Senate anyway, so who cares? We can always fix it in committee when through the reconciliation process
Is this what the grown-ups in the House should be doing? Is this really the “adult” supervision of Paul Ryan at play?
So here is what we know: the Republicans aren’t waiting for the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report on the overall impact of the bill. Last time the report was devastating. Twenty plus million Americans would lose coverage under that bill. This time? Why ask? Why wait? Well, one only does that when one wants to know. One Republican, on NPR this morning, said that this is a better bill, so why wait for a CBO report that we know will be better? Um, because facts matter? Because people want to know how you are screwing them, who will lose insurance, because we expect leadership and real solutions? Nope. Apparently that doesn’t matter.
So, for the hundredth odd time the House Republicans will pass a bill that they expect to be meaningless. Except this time it may spin out of their control. The impact may be real. And they just don’t get it. After all, they are the same dumbasses that didn’t take Trump’s candidacy seriously, let him run in their party, and look how that worked out for them.
Resist