Last week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch “the Deal Maker” McConnell delayed the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) vote, after intra-party support for the Republican plan eroded, thanks to a disastrous CBO score. Apparently, moderate Republicans cannot justify 23 MILLION people losing healthcare.
I was feeling somewhat positive that, perhaps, Senate Republicans would put their big girl panties on, and do the right fucking thing (i.e. work with Democrats) for a change. Then I read this headline: “RNC asked Hillary Clinton where her health care plan is -- and Clinton responded” (CBS News, by way of MSN.Com).
Naturally, I clicked on through to the article, which details Republicans declaring “the U.S. healthcare system is broken,” and demanding Democrats present their plan to fix it. My head exploded. The Democrats healthcare plan is already in place; it’s called the ACA (“Obamacare”); it's the plan these GOP assclowns have been bitching, moaning about, and calling for its repeal for the last seven years!
Congressional Democrats and healthcare policy experts agree that the ACA is far from perfect. However, a plan that strips healthcare away from 23 MILLION people— and increases deductibles and premiums for millions more— to pay for tax cuts for 400 super-wealthy families is not A FUCKING IMPROVEMENT!
Allow me to drop some data on you. A study from the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center finds that nearly 45 percent of the tax cut benefits in the BCRA would go to households making $875,000 or more. Are you pulling down $875,000 dollars annually? Yeah, me neither! I encourage you to read the entire blog. It is informative, illuminating, and fucking infuriating! Check this out:
- Average tax cut for households making $55,000-$93,000 annually: $280. After tax income increase of 0.4 percent.
- Average tax cut for households making $875,000 or more annually: $45,000. After tax income increase: 2.5 percent.
What the actual fuck? How do these motherfuckers keep getting elected?
Here’s an inconvenient truth for congressional Republicans: affordable healthcare significantly improves people’s lives, and now that people have it, they’re not fucking giving it up. A few examples:
- In Indiana — the 7,000-plus responses Indiana Republicans received from residents sharing positive stories about how Obamacare made their particular health concerns more manageable. Indiana Republicans received this “flood” of pro-ACA responses after asking for "Obamacare Horror Stories" on the Indiana GOP's Facebook page.
- In Arkansas — dozens demonstrated, urging U.S. Sens. Tom Cotton and John Boozman to oppose the Senate Republican health care bill.
- In Texas — 150 protestors shout “Shame on Ted” in protest of Sen. Ted Cruz’s support of BCRA.
- In Washington D.C. — demonstrators descended on the home offices of 24 Republican senators Thursday, demanding legislators oppose the Senate bill repealing the Affordable Care Act.
Research suggests that repealing the ACA will result in people dying. Conservatively, if 20 million Americans lose their coverage, 43,956 people will die EVERY YEAR). Regardless of how much Republicans want to convince us otherwise, BCRA is not an improvement over the ACA; it is not an improvement over the House’s American Health Care Act (AHCA). BRCA is bad policy. BCRA is bad for most Americans.