This afternoon, the Republican majority in the House of Representatives will vote to strip away health insurance from 24 million people, reduce the quality of health insurance for millions more, dramatically weaken protections for pre-existing conditions, and recklessly re-shuffle about a sixth of the American economy.
They will do so in a chaotic rush, in the face of overwhelming opposition from experts and the general public alike, and without any of the careful analysis, review, or discussion that usually accompanies major legislation.
If this bill, or anything resembling it, is ever signed into law, then many people will die as a consequence, while many others will be consigned to financial or medical misery. That’s not a possibility or a probability; it’s a certainty.
In the modern era, it is hard to think of a prior Congressional action quite so intellectually incoherent, morally bankrupt, or needlessly cruel. For those responsible, there is no plausible route to redemption, no possible combination of compensating, positive acts that might even the scales of historical judgment.
Every representative voting in favor deserves to be swept out of public office. Every single one.