Seth Meyers began his show with the revelations that President Barack Obama told unpopular incumbent Donald Trump that disgraced General Michael Flynn was going to be a disgrace and should not have a job. But quickly, Meyers moved into the passing of the Trumpcare zombie bill and the subsequent fallout at town halls for Republicans. Discussing the now infamous Raul Labrador quote saying that no one dies of lacking access to healthcare, Meyers shot this factoid.
That’s like saying that nobody dies from falling out of a window, it’s the pavement that gets you.
After lambasting Republicans for clearly not reading the proposal and the myriad disastrous crisis management attempts by Party members, Seth Meyers does a simple recount of the events that just transpired this past week and then shows clips of a “younger” Paul Ryan railing against the very bullshit he and his Republican Party are guilty of doing now. This led to the revelation that Speaker Paul Ryan’s people saw Meyers’ takedown and were sadface emoji about it.
After we aired that segment last week, we here at "Late Night" actually got an e-mail from Speaker Ryan's office taking issue with our analysis of the health care bill and the rushed process. And unlike Republicans and their health care bill, we actually read the whole e-mail. But this is great because we genuinely appreciate the engagement and would love to have Speaker Ryan on the show. Suffice to say we don't agree with the e-mail, and we thought it would be helpful if we took a second to respond to some of their claims point by point.
For example, they took issue with our characterization that the bill was rushed, writing: “This bill has been online for a month, went through four House committees, and the only change this week was a simple three-page amendment.” Which is misleading for a number of reasons. For one thing, that three-page amendment is the reason a lot of Republicans changed their minds and voted for this bill, so you can't claim it's a small change. A lot can happen in three pages. That's like saying I made you a cappuccino with hot water, sugar, espresso, and one other ingredient. You would say, "Well, what's the other ingredient, Mr. Cosby?"
Meyers also quote Republican Senator Lindsey Graham saying how ridiculous any bill rushed through in 24 hours is.
The Speaker's office also took issue with our claim that this bill literally takes from the poor and gives to the rich by cutting taxes on the wealthy while simultaneously cutting $880 billion from Medicaid. They responded that:
“The bill does not only cut taxes on wealthier Americans. The bill repeals all of Obamacare’s taxes … “
And sure, there are other taxes in Obamacare—like the mandate penalty and a tax on medical-device manufacturers. That's true. But Obamacare is funded largely by taxes on wages and investments of people making over $200,000 a year. And under the GOP plan, those people will get a giant tax cut.
From here Meyers drops the mountains of actual analysis of this rich person’s money grab.
We also told you last week the Republicans had made the bill even worse by adding a new provision that allows states to waive out of Obamacare's ban on preexisting conditions.
Now, the Speaker's office claims states can only waive the ban on preexisting conditions if they set up what are known as high-risk pools, which are basically separate insurance plans for older and sicker people. But historically, those high-risk pools have provided worse coverage and much higher costs. And on top of that, some Republicans don't even seem to know how the high-risk pools work in the first place. For example, Texas Congressman Joe Barton claimed the high-risk pools have worked in the state of Maine. And when he was fact-checked on CNN, he had to admit he didn't know what he was talking about.
Enjoy the whole segment below.