After Jimmy Kimmel’s moving monologue sharing his family’s intimate experience with pre-existing conditions with the country, Republicans decided to continue to push forward on their bullshit story that they haven’t signed a death warrant for millions of Americans. Kimmel says that while the feedback he’s gotten has been mostly positive, not everyone was happy—the Republican Party in particular.
Tongue firmly in cheek, Kimmel apologized.
I would like to apologize for saying that children in America should have health care. It was insensitive, it was offensive, and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.
Then Kimmel shows the world’s biggest failure, Newt Gingrich, explaining that if you brought an infant to the hospital and they had to do emergency surgery on that infant, you wouldn’t be affected by the AHCA. Kimmel points out all of the “details Newt forgot to mention,” like never-ending doctor’s appointments, transportation to doctors, or taking an ambulance to hospitals.
I don’t know if the double layers of spanx are restricting the blood flow to his brain.
He throws back to Gingrich who specifically attacked late night comedy for being “too angry to be funny.”
Listen, Newt Gingrich does know a lot about comedy. This is a man who helped lead the impeachment effort against Bill Clinton for trying to cover up his affair—while he was having an affair. That’s hilarious, c’mon! There’s a reason he was named after a lizard, and that was it.
Next up? Raul Labrador, most recently known for saying that “nobody dies because they don’t have access to health care.” Kimmel plays Labrador’s idiot statement at a town hall.
And that’s a congressman. Not a garbage man. A congressman.
Kimmel then has Republican Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) on. Cassidy famously used the reasonable-for-a-Republican statement that any Obamacare replacement bill needed to “pass the Jimmy Kimmel test.” So, obviously, Kimmel brings him on live television to talk about such a “test.” This part isn’t nearly as funny, but it is an interesting moment as Sen. Cassidy has all of the reasonable-sounding qualities of a good politician. Sen. Cassidy pushes hard on the idea that Democrats need to work with Republicans to fix the bill that the Republicans just passed through the House (um, no they don’t). But Kimmel is able to ask a question and say two very simple things.
Since I am Jimmy Kimmel, I would like to make a suggestion as to what the Jimmy Kimmel test should be. I’ll keep it simple. The Jimmy Kimmel test, I think, should be: No family should be denied medical care, emergency or otherwise, because they can’t afford it. Can that be the Jimmy Kimmel test — as simple as that?
This hits Cassidy like it hits all Republicans—in their craven innards. Cassidy mentions how that’s great but we need to be able to pay for it.
Well, I can think of a way we can pay for it. Don’t give a huge tax cut to millionaires like me.
Cassidy laughs and says call your senators and endorse that concept—which every single poll says Americans have already. Because in the end, most Americans don’t believe health care should be treated like the commodity that most Republicans want to treat it as.
Enjoy.