As we’ve all heard, the latest iteration of the GOP’s “Appeal and Replace”, better known as “Search and Destroy”, died last night when two conservative senators, Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas, said they couldn’t vote for the bill because it didn’t wreak enough havoc or kill enough Americans to suit them.  Later in the evening, TurtleNeck McConnell predictably announced that the Senate would then just vote to repeal with no replacement so even MORE people would die.  That idiotic notion died a sudden death today when less insane Republicans said no to that.  So what is left of this issue, Donald Trump’s biggest promise to his red-capped mobs who voted for him?  This:

For the Republicans, who are hell-bent on erasing Barack Obama from the history books to satisfy their mouth breather base, they can only offer Kabuki, or highly stylized and exaggerated staging, like signing ceremonies for letters, executive orders, and silly truck shows on the White House lawn to make it look like they’re really doing something when they’re not.

In these days of clowns, carnival barkers, and totalitarians infesting the White House, I’ll certainly take nothing over something, which is what the Congress is producing, at least so far.

After watching the cynical self-congratulatory beer bust in the WH rose garden on Thursday, I found myself not just angry or disappointed; I was enraged.  The arrogant, taunting, narcissistic, boasting Cheeto-skinned parasite currently infesting Our House, along with virtually every gerrymandered-in weirdo and screwball in DC made me want to throw my shoe through the screen.

That rage came alive on Friday morning when, on Facebook, one of my conservative friends expressed frustration with Republicans voting to strip him of his healthcare because of his pre-existing condition. Immediately, one of his more conservative friends responded about how wonderful the new bill was and that it would “help many”.   Enough was enough; I launched on him, pointing out that the bill was rushed through the House without representatives reading it, it wasn’t scored by the CBO, and that early readings by the media were pointing out its legion of flaws, including re-introducing lifetime and annual caps, restoring exclusion of pre-existing conditions, slashing of Medicaid, slashing healthcare for special needs kids, etc., etc.  His defense?  Lying.  Not just spinning, outright lying.

He argued that they caps are not part of the bill when they are.  He argued that health savings accounts would cover the shortfalls (which is laughable; when’s the last time you saw someone pay a $300,000 chemotherapy bill with an HSA?); he argued that this bill was an actual effort to improve healthcare when, in fact, it was just a disguised tax cut.  When challenged, he said, “Well, the bill’s not finished.”  Not finished?  They already voted for it in the House!  They went to the WH and celebrated!

In fact, this last statement was the only thing that he had said that was true…it wasn’t finished.  It still must go to the Senate where it most certainly won’t survive, at least in its current form.  The defense of this bill is built on lies.  It has to, because math is math.  You cut a trillion dollars out of healthcare, and millions will suffer, and no lie justifying it can change that.  You place caps on coverage, people will die.  You exclude pre-existing conditions, people will die.  It’s like gravity; those truths are just there.

So, what was this all about?  That’s easy – it’s Kabuki.  It’s a glittery show for the base voters of this crowd in DC who waste a lot of oxygen trying to meet there demands of erasing President Obama’s name from history regardless of damage to millions of Americans.  I believe that Trump and conservatives in the House realize that the chance of actually repealing the ACA is slim, therefore the shameful display in the rose garden.  With any luck, this will be the only celebration they hold cheering on the deaths of millions of Americans.