The Republican Party Bites

I don't think I ever believed the Senate would ever stop the madness.

When the House tripped over themselves trying to nuke Obamacare earlier this year, it had more to do with the GOP being too inept to pull off the stunt. So of course, the Far Right Republicans pressed ahead on another plan to gut the Affordable Care Act, passing a horrifying House bill that granted them their oh-so-precious TAX CUT FOR THE RICH at the cost of kicking 18 to 24 million Americans off health care.

The House did that all in a rush, in secret, unwilling to let it be up for debate or cross-examination.

So why expect the Republican-controlled Senate to be any different?

They too worked on their version of the Kill Americans Act in utter secrecy, avoiding committee room reviews or public debate on the matter. What they came up with was a horrifying Senate bill that grants them their oh-so-precious TAX CUT FOR THE RICH at the cost of kicking 18 to 24 million Americans off health care.

You might notice there is little goddamn difference between the two bills. Merely the wording and the time-delays the Senate built into their ticking time bomb.

And of course the Beltway media will condemn in the softest language, debate using rules only the Far Right will accept, falsify history about how Obama and his Democratic allies passed their ACA, and pretend that this would all somehow work out if only the Democrats in Congress would be more bipartisan about it.

And of course the Moderates in the Senate - the Concerned Corps of Crunchy Conservatism - will roll over and vote for this bill after a hammy performance of "oh we need to tweak just this little bit and ALL WILL BE WELL" so they can campaign on "I fought for you" when they really didn't.

And of course trump will sign whichever travesty of "Nuke Obamacare" reaches his desk, because then he will claim HE'S DONE THE MOST OF ANY PRESIDENT EVER and preen like a jackass pretending to be an eagle.

AND OF COURSE MILLIONS OF AMERICANS WILL LOSE HEALTH CARE COVERAGE, EITHER THROUGH MASSIVE CUTS TO MEDICAID OR THROUGH INCREASED PREMIUMS THEY CAN'T AFFORD TO MATCH. Even working Americans are going to find themselves feeling the pinch, not just in three years but in three months when the insurance companies freak out against the changes in law and funding.

All because the Republican Party as a whole no longer gives a shit about any American making less than $200,000 a year.

All because too many voters bought into the decades-long propaganda campaign by the Republicans and their Fox Not-News shills that libruls are the true evildoers who cavort with the Dreaded OTHER.

All because we have a broken electoral system from the gerrymanders all the way up to an outdated Electoral College.

I wrote two years ago that the Republican Party was dead, that all that remains was a soulless shambling ghoul, a zombie whose continued existence was racing to the grave.

Problem with zombies: anything they bite turns into a zombie too.

This nation got bit by the Wingnut plague, and we're at the point it's shambling into that grave along with the GOP.

Gods Help Us All.