When Republicans intend to screw you, they’ll continue to drop their pants

It’s déjà vu all over again…and again…and again…

Against all expert advice and with no conscience whatsoever, the Republican Party is trying one more time to take away health insurance from millions of American citizens so it can cut taxes on the wealthiest among us.

If it seems as if I’ve written these words before, it’s because I have. If it seems as if you’ve read these words before, it’s because you have. Sadly, in no civilized country would anybody have to use these words once, let alone four or five times, but with our current Congress and our faux president in office, the words “civilized country” don’t necessarily apply to the United States of Trump.

Word oozed out of the Washington swamp this week that the Republican-controlled Senate is very close to passing yet another attempt to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act with a bill so bad it could only – accurately – be named the “Tax Breaks for the Rich While Screwing the Poor, the Sick and the Elderly So We Can Give Trump His Goddamned Win and Maybe Shut Him Up For a While Authorization Bill.”

Just when you thought it was safe to go to the doctor again, along comes Lindsay Graham and three other assholes with a plan to take away our subsidized health insurance (including Medicaid) and dump the whole thing into the laps of states who don’t want it and whose governors oppose it…but don’t worry about that now, right Lindsay?

Just when you thought cancer patient John McCain saved our bacon with his famous thumbs down, Senate President Mitch McConnell and the rest of the Old White Wealthy Women Haters come back with a plan that, like all of its predecessors, is even worse than the one that was just voted down, which was worse than the one before it which was worse than the ones before that.

For his part, House Speaker Paul Ryan, that bastion of empathy and humanity, says he’ll send it straight to Trump’s desk if the Senate can squeeze out the 50 votes it needs, and Trump, who most likely hasn’t read the bill and isn’t ever going to read it, will sign anything put in front of him that’s not a check to pay one of the vendors who helped build his hotels.

Like all of the others, this bill is opposed by the American Medical Association, the AARP, Blue Cross-Blue Shield, the insurance industry in general and every other organization that actually understands how health care works in this country and has a hand in providing it, administering it or paying for it.

Of course, no one in Congress would be expected to know that, because no hearings have been held on this bill, no witnesses have been asked to testify, no amendments have been offered and no cost figures have been assigned. As far as I know, no one has even seen the damn thing except the four old white men who sponsored it and are out there pushing for its passage.

This scenario is not only off the charts, it’s a few light years beyond unbelievable. Things like this don’t happen in the good old USA…until they do.

Consider this:

If someone introduced a military spending bill that was opposed by the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, National Guard, VFW, American Legion and the Wounded Warriors Project, do you think Congress would pass it without a hearing?

If someone introduced a tax code revision that was opposed by small businesses; large businesses; state treasurers; local, state and federal Chambers of Commerce; the IRS; the Congressional Budget Office; individual taxpayers and H&R Block, would Congress pass it without a hearing?

Why, then, is it even possible to pass a health care bill that is opposed by every stakeholder in the health care industry without so much as a single effort to take comments in any form? What is wrong with this picture? (Answer: everything.)

There is still hope, of course, if you believe what certain members of the Senate have been saying. That’s because all Democrats and Independents are expected to vote against this bill, meaning if only three Republicans join them, the bill is dead.  The scoreboard looks like this:

* Rand Paul of Kentucky says the bill is so bad it can’t be fixed, so he’s a “no” (unless he changes his mind).

* Susan Collins of Maine has voted against previous bills and is backing her own bi-partisan bill, so she’s a “no” (unless she changes her mind).

* Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted against all of the other attempts and her governor opposes this one, too, so she looks like a “no” (unless she’s a “yes” or changes her mind).

* John McCain of Arizona says “nothing has changed” since he killed the last bill with his famous thumbs down, so he seems like a “no” (unless he’s not, or changes his mind).

* And then there’s Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, who has said she didn’t go to Washington to “hurt people,” and who has promised her constituents she wouldn’t vote for a bill that drastically cut Medicaid or black lung benefits or treatment for opiod abuse in her state, all of which this bill seems to do. She could be a “no,” but she voted “yes” the last time out, so who really knows?

Meanwhile, people who depend on the ACA for their health insurance find themselves in the same place they’ve been all spring and summer long…waiting anxiously here in the shadows while the Republican Sword of Damocles continues to hang over their heads. I know what I’d like to do with that sword (hint: Ned Stark), but I’d better not say it out loud. These days, you never know who might be listening.