Republicans didn’t want to know what was in this god-awful bill — and can only hope the rest of us don’t either.
GARY LEGUM
After they had voted Wednesday to screw tens of millions of Americans out of the health care and financial protections granted them by the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, House Republicans marched over to the White House for a Rose Garden press conference. There they verbally fellated one another for the bravery they had just shown. “Leadership” was the watchword of the day.
“Thanks to the leadership of President Donald Trump; welcome to the beginning of the end of Obamacare,” Vice President Mike Pence intoned. “Thank you, Mr. President, for your leadership,” said the giddy-looking House Speaker Paul Ryan. “Mr. President, Mr. Vice President, I am proud … again to say thank you for your leadership,” drawled the gnomish chair of the House Committee on Ways and Means, Rep. Kevin Brady. Trump, while not using the word, nonetheless praised Ryan for the efforts he had undertaken to drag out enough votes from his caucus.
It was a surreal celebration, considering how far this bill still has to go before it gets to the president’s desk to be considered for signing. It was even more surreal for the blatant lies coming out of the mouths of various Republicans about what this bill will do, at least if the final version remotely resembles this one. No one in the Rose Garden on Thursday afternoon wanted to admit it, but the financial and human costs are simply staggering.
As many as 24 million fewer people with health insurance. An $880 billion cut to Medicaid, which provides health care coverage to roughly one 1 of every 5 Americans (and would cover more if not for the 19 states that have turned down Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion). The defunding of Planned Parenthood. Cuts to treatment for addiction, for nursing home costs, for special education students. The return of insurance companies denying coverage for pre-existing conditions. The list of those pre-existing conditions. And on and on and on.
Read more here: http://www.salon.com/2017/05/05/a‑grotesque-failure-of-leadership-republicans-celebrate-but-well-all-pay-for-the-way-they-jammed-the-trumpcare-atrocity-through-the-house/