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As I sat there and watched the votes trickle in for the AHCA, it made me think about how we got here and what this moment means. The passage of this bill in the House goes way beyond healthcare. Every single Republican that voted for this bill, including Mia Love who I am running against, is stating unequivocally that giving tax cuts to billionaires is more important than human life. That may sound harsh, but it is hard to look at the history of this bill and come away with any other conclusion.
Republicans in Congress have had one goal in mind since the November election. That goal was tax reform. They have been itching to cut taxes at the very top for years and with a Republican president and majorities in both the House and the Senate, they finally got their opportunity. However, there was one big hurdle standing in their way — the filibuster which would require Republicans to have 60 votes in the Senate.
Republicans can get around the filibuster by passing legislation through Budget Reconciliation. Basically, a bill can be fillibuster-proof if it only deals with taxes and spending and it reduces the deficit. That last requirement is the real kicker here. In order to pass massive tax cuts, spending needs to come down in tandem or else it increases the deficit and can’t be passed through reconciliation.
This is where the AHCA comes in. The main goal of the AHCA was to cut funding to Medicaid — an estimated $880 billion over 10 years — and I honestly can’t see any other way to look at it. A complete overhaul of our healthcare system was attempted without knowing how much the bill would cost taxpayers and without having read the bill before voting on it. There is a reason we didn't see rigorous debate on policies in the AHCA; Republicans wanted to gut Medicaid so that there was money left over to pass tax cuts through reconciliation.
There is something so craven, so slimey, so despicable about this whole ordeal that I can barely wrap my brain around it. Republicans like Mia Love were willing to put millions of Americans at risk so that they could give some extra money to their billionaire buddies. This is the kind of brazen action that would make Lex Luthor ask, “I don’t know, seems a bit harsh, don’t you think?”
Legislation should be for the benefit of the American people. It should be debated and fine-tuned until it is ready. It should be scored by the Congressional Budget Office so that everyone knows how much the bill is going to cost. It should be publicly available so that all of us can know what is at stake. The AHCA went through none of that. The simple fact is that Republicans don't care about healthcare; if they did, they would have set out to fix it instead of try to ram it through without any thought to the consequences.
Something is seriously poisonous in Washington right now and I will do everything I can help fix it. The future looks uncertain and standing up for our democracy has never been more important. Please join me at www.tomforutah.com and consider a donation. Please follow me on twitter @TomForUtah. Let’s make government work for us again.