We’re already in a crisis.

Trump is a very unpopular president by geographic accident of 70,000 votes and the Electoral College. Wikileaks, voter suppression, FBI interference, decades of propaganda, etc. The GOP has control of the House through toxic partisan gerrymandering, voter suppression, decades of propaganda, etc.  All are anti-democratic hacks on our election process that has given Republicans complete control of the levers of power despite not earning as many votes as Democrats at any level!  How are we not more alarmed by this?

There’s little doubt that they are dedicated to continuing that process and consider their holding onto power (or getting more of it) their only actual goal – a perversion of the idea of public service.  They’re certainly not interested in helping people have better lives, or even the simple act of enacting legislation people want, or they’d fix Obamacare and do universal background checks, etc., etc. etc. – but this disconnect with what polls say their constituents actually want is so well known and accepted that it’s hardly remarked upon. How are we not more alarmed by this?

The ACA Repeal and Replace bill (“Trumpcare” – it’s so bad that it’s the one thing EVER that Trump doesn’t want his name on, consider that) had about the worst roll out a piece of legislation, a policy change can possibly garner.  AARP is against it, the AMA, the hospital lobby orgs., all of the medical community.  Polling says the public is more against gutting the ACA than ever and in the next couple of days polls on this bill will be overwhelmingly negative.  Even conservative think tanks are against this “Obamacare-lite” bill.

Nevertheless, Ryan and McConnell persist in pushing a relentlessly hated bill that would unquestionably throw millions off insurance rolls, increase costs for millions more and probably negatively affect the deficit.  Of course we don’t have absolute numbers on these things because the CBO hasn’t scored the bill yet.  But Ryan and McConnell are trying to push this forward without a score, forcing their conference members to vote for it with limited information.  It’s unprecedented, it’s irresponsible, it’s insane and it’s a very bad sign.

The White House has preemptively attacked the CBO in an act of complete dictatorial dissonance.  They say that if, IF the CBO actually does get a score out you certainly shouldn’t trust it, trust us the elected liars, not the unelected liars. The CBO, in the WH’s telling of it, are just dishonest bureaucrats who were wrong on Obamacare. The truth is that, like seemingly everything else, this WH and the GOP leadership are lying about the facts of the ACA, and what the CBO said it would do.  It’s mindboggling because it’s so boldfaced.  The facts are absolutely out there, they are knowable by people who want to know them.  The ACA is not in a death spiral, in fact it’s doing almost exactly what the CBO said it would (even with regard to premiums!) and that’s with the GOP tampering with it at every turn.

It cannot be said forcefully enough.  They are lying about the ACA every time they talk about it.

Our democracy has already reached a crisis.  The GOP leaders are pushing the country from crisis towards full blown banana republic status.

They are dedicated to pushing this piece of shit bill no matter what.  It’s already a give away to the wealthy and to insurance CEOs.  To get more votes from GOPers the only path Ryan and McConnell have are to promise more pork barrel giveaways, backroom deals and hardball arm twisting.  I almost feel bad for those few GOP lawmakers who might have principled objections who will be run over by their leadership.

The media has only just broadly caught up to the fact that Trump is a liar recently, good for them.  The next step is that they need to say out loud that the GOP does not have good intentions for our country.

Healthcare, the EPA, the State Dept., the FEC, the FCC, you name it, agencies tasked with helping the American people are being hamstrung.  They’re legislating on the side of sickness, pollution, injustice, unfairness, illiberal anti-democracy.

Trump is not normal.  But neither is the entire GOP that enabled him.  Time to be very, very alarmed.