Thigh-High Politics is an Op-Ed column by Teen Vogue writer Lauren Duca that breaks down the news, provides resources for the resistance, and just generally refuses to accept toxic nonsense.
Shortly after midnight on Friday morning, the GOP Senate failed in its latest attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, narrowly losing a rushed attempt at stripping health care from tens of millions of people under the veil of darkness.
Sens. Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, and John McCain voted against the bill, ultimately defeating it. The Trumpcare initiative has died and come back to life more times than the villain in a lazy horror movie, but regardless of whether this is the final flatline, one thing is certain: The GOP is attempting to use the system created by the people in order to work against our best interests and presiding public opinion. Moving forward, with the exceptions of Murkowski, Collins, and McCain, the Republican Senate should be considered an active threat to democracy.
This morning’s cloak-and-dagger vote was the result of an extended process of covert manipulation led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Rallying votes for his motion to begin debate, McConnell has spent his time alternately sweet-talking and bullying fellow senators, while conspicuously hiding his preferred plan from public scrutiny. Still, the callousness of the GOP remained unobscured. Any potential efforts introduced under McConnell’s “motion to consider” over the past several days would have lead to many millions of people becoming uninsured — a measure the majority of the public does not support.
Make no mistake, if any form of the current GOP health care measures are able to pass, people will die. What is most egregious about all this is the manner in which so many American lives would be stolen. Senate Republicans have spent the past week blatantly abusing parliamentary procedure in order to force through legislation that is opposed by most of the electorate. As part of their effort to limit the influence of public debate, they began fast-tracking repeal attempts through to a vote, with shortcuts like using budget reconciliation as a loophole for altering large swaths of policy. On Thursday, they escalated this strategy, with House Republicans considering invoking “martial law,” under which a Senate-approved bill would be able to be voted on with less than a day’s notice. Then came the early morning vote. The intricacies of these tactics are somewhat complicated, so here’s a blunt translation: They tried to rush this thing through, before anyone could do a damn thing about it.
There’s no question as to whether more breathing room would lead to greater public opposition. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll conducted earlier this month showed that just 28% support the bid to repeal and replace. The health care debate has become so frenzied that we seem to have forgotten the basic function of these senators, who are transparently conspiring to reformulate health care against the wishes of the individuals they are meant to serve. An elected official’s job is to represent the interests of their constituents, and the Republican Senate has explicitly rejected that duty in favor of achieving an astoundingly heartless political win.
At this point, partisan pig-headedness has all but fully consumed establishment conservatives, who long ago abandoned anything even remotely resembling principled conviction. For the past seven years, the GOP has grounded the party’s very existence in aggressive opposition to the Affordable Care Act, beginning with the earliest stages of the law’s creation. Back in 2009, Republicans accused Democrats of sinister secrecy, even though they spent more than 15 months and 44 hearings (split across the House and Senate) vetting and debating the bill. McConnell’s “motion to consider” allowed Republican reform to be up for a Senate vote, even though there have been only two hearings total, both in the House, regarding a different version of the bill. Hypocrisy is truly too weak of a word.
Speculating why the Republicans have not come up with a satisfactory alternative to the Affordable Care Act is as useless as DMing Camila to rejoin Fifth Harmony. Perhaps it is because their goal of achieving massive tax cuts for the wealthy is arithmetically irreconcilable with widely accessible care. Regardless of the authenticity of their intentions, here’s where we are as the GOP’s efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act continues: Instead of admitting they need more time to formulate a replacement, or considering working with Democrats to fix the elements of the Affordable Care Act they believe will lead to its “implosion,” Republicans set out destroy the measure in its entirety. This morning’s narrowly failed legislation would have been the moral equivalent of a toddler smashing a toy when it’s another kid’s turn to play. Only here, the toy is the grand scope of American livelihood.
Republicans’ most compelling explanation for their rabid need to repeal the Affordable Care Act is their insistence that the current plan is in danger of collapse. One of the biggest threats to the Affordable Care Act is the infusion of uncertainty into the insurance market—exacerbated by Republicans' frantic attempts to repeal and replace—with insurance companies reasonably concerned that the government won't meet its cost-sharing obligations. To be sure, there are elements of the Affordable Care Act in need of adjustment, but Republicans have made it clear that they are not so concerned with fixing the bill as demolishing it.
It’s 2017 in Trump’s America and, as per usual, impossible to say what will happen next, though there is no doubt that these men the public elected — and it is mostly men — have turned against us. The core of the Republican Party have made it unabashedly clear that they are acting in opposition not only to Democrats but to the health and desires of the public they purport to represent. Their actions on health care reveal a total disregard for the constituents who voted them into their positions of authority. What greater threat to democracy is there than undermining its founding principle of government by and for the people? Under Donald Trump’s rule, America is dying, and the depravity of the GOP has revealed itself as one of our most dire pre-existing conditions.
Things to Read:
Amid the health care turmoil, Trump announced a ban on transgender people from serving in the military. Many have speculated as to whether this is a “distraction,” and while the measure may well be intended to incite chaos, it has serious implications that cannot be written off as simply a means of diverting attention. Check out David Remnick’s take on the cruelty and cynicism at play.
If you’re trying to follow along with the Senate on C-Span, check out this guide to parliamentary procedure from The New York Times. It’s also worth looking at the editorial board’s stunning takedown of the Senate’s health care travesty.
Also, Russia! Head over to The Nation for Katrina vanden Heuvel’s piece on the need to investigate collusion while de-escalating this state of crisis.
Things to Do:
Do not back down on health care. Call your representatives. Let them know you are still paying attention, and that this issue will absolutely put them at risk in the 2018 elections. The main contact number for the Senate is 202-224-3121.
If you can, consider making a donation to a crisis resource organization like the Trevor Project. If you are transgender, please know that you are loved and supported. Help can be reached 24/7 at 866-488-7386, or via Trans Lifeline at 877-565-8860.
Keep an eye out for local demonstrations around health care, or maybe consider organizing a protest of your own. Here are some tips for organizing a march or rally.
