#TrumpRyanCare: Joe Wilson Got Some 'Splainin' To Do

Joe Wilson, who represents South Carolina's 2nd congressional district---essentially the South Carolina midlands, where I live---was, until this Thursday past, known for only two things: (1) Whining about people who "live off the government dole" while he, his wife and his son enjoy all the benefits and perks that come with being employed by, respectively, the federal government, local government and state government, (2) disgracing his office and humiliating the people of South Carolina by infamously shouting "You lie!" at President Obama during the latter's speech to a joint session of Congress in September, 2009.

Other than that, he has, until this Thursday past, been known for little beyond voting for or against whatever the Republican leadership in the U.S. House tells him to vote for or against.

He now, however, is able to add one more notable item to his limited resume of accomplishment: Joe Wilson can lay claim to having voted for the largest redistribution of wealth contained in a single bill in United States history.

He did that by voting "aye" to #TrumpRyanCare.

And Joe, well, he's got some 'splainin' to do.

#TrumpRyanCare was never a health care plan and, if you were ignorant of that until today, it was only because you haven't been paying attention. And, unless you are an individual whose annual income is $200,000+ or one-half of a couple whose annual income is $250,000+, your failure to pay attention may well come back to haunt you.

#TrumpRyanCare has never been anything more than a massive tax cut plan that places American health care into the category of collateral damage. Put simply, it funds #TrumpRyanTaxCuts, The Big Orange's one-page "tax reform plan" that could have been written on the back of a Mar-a-Lago napkin still bearing the remnants of a "big, beautiful piece of chocolate cake" ordered from the dessert menu.

Catherine Rampell---a right young, up-and-coming journalist/writer who consistently manifests real command per the topics about which she writes; i.e., she is impressive---pointed out the obvious in a Washington Post op-ed that appeared on March 9 and appropriately stripped flesh from bone in eviscerating the first iteration of #TrumpRyanCare: "Let's abandon the pretense. Republicans' 'health care' bill is not really about health care. It's not about improving access to health insurance, or reducing premiums, or making sure you get to keep you doctor if you like your doctor. And it's certainly not about preventing people from dying in the streets. Instead, it's about hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts---tax cuts that will pave the way for more, and far larger, tax cuts."

David Leonhardt, in a New York Times piece, sums up #TrumpRyanCare as follows: "The Republican health bill is simply a bad bill. It's been blasted by conservative and liberal health experts, as well as groups representing patients, doctors, nurses and hospitals. Above all, the bill cuts health benefits for the poor, the middle-class, the elderly and the sick, and it funnels the savings to tax cuts for the rich."

And Jonathan Cohn gives the lie to Republican claims about #TrumpRyanCare being more beneficial to the American people than the Affordable Care Act when he correctly writes that "They are promising their proposal would make it easier for people to pay their medical bills, even as they drain the health care system of nearly $1 trillion in federal funding. That is not a credible argument."

[Nobody is even talking about the fact that, according to an analysis done by the Center for American Progress, #TrumpRyanCare will result in the potential loss of 1.8 million jobs by 2022. The American health care system, after all, has a long food chain.]

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office and the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation scored the first iteration of #TrumpRyanCare and estimated tax cuts in excess of $1,000,000,000 (that's $1 trillion) over its first decade. Analysts have indicated that the total of those tax cuts will rise in the second iteration, which passed the U.S. House---with an assist from Joe Wilson---on Thursday. Indeed, the latter assessment is no doubt part of the reason why House Republicans wanted to rush a vote on the bill before the CBO could score it.

The real beneficiaries of the enormous windfall provided by #TrumpRyanTaxCuts will, of course, be those Americans who least need it---it would have saved The Big Orange $31 million in 2005 alone. In other words, the wealthier will get wealthier, the poor will get poorer and the middle-class will realize enough in tax savings to be able to go to OutBack instead of Arby's twice-a-year (depending, of course, on how much their health care costs increase and whether or not they are in the 50-64 year-old age group---the latter could face paying 3 to 5 times as much for health care coverage as those who are younger).

The proof of this is in the proverbial pudding:

Over 40% of the $1 trillion plus in tax cuts will go to the top 1% of income-earners. Over 2/3 will go to the top 20% of income-earners. Hence, it deserves being noted again that Joe Wilson can now add to his resume the fact that he voted for the largest redistribution of wealth contained in a single bill in United States history.

My guess is that, if/when Joe Wilson tries to 'splain' his vote to disembowel American health care in favor of exponentially increasing the wealth/capital/income/opportunity gap between the 1% and the 99%, he will, well, lie about it.

In other words, he won't talk about #TrumpRyanCare having to be passed because the $1 trillion it strips from the ACA---$800 billion from Medicaid alone---is absolutely necessary for the passage of #TrumpRyanTaxCuts.

Why is it necessary?

Because funding $1 trillion in tax cuts through a simple budgetary appropriation would blow a hole right through the federal debt ceiling. Republicans would also have to factor in the overtime pay for those who run the printing presses at the U.S. Mint. Or, quickly pass a bill that disallows overtime pay for federal employees. Oh, wait...

Most importantly, however, funding those tax cuts through a simple appropriation would not allow them to be considered "revenue neutral." Hence, Senate Republicans would have to garner 60 votes---under "regular order"---in order to pass the bill. Which would doom #TrumpRyanTaxCuts to defeat since Democrats could then filibuster it to a quiet death.

However, if Republicans can steal $1 trillion from the American health care system, they can use it to fund $1 trillion in tax cuts and claim them---and the bill that creates them---to be "revenue neutral." Beyond not having to answer uncomfortable questions about spiking the federal debt, this would allow Senate Republicans to pass #TrumpRyanTaxCuts through the "reconciliation process," which requires a simple majority vote. If Mitch McConnell were able to hang on to his slim Republican majority, this enormous win for the wealthy would be approved by a 52-48 vote.

So, if you didn't already know, now you do know why there was always an inextricable linkage between #TrumpRyanCare and #TrumpRyanTaxCuts. And you also now know that Republicans are enthusiastically willing to do immeasurable harm to immeasurable numbers of Americans in order to facilitate the largest redistribution of wealth contained in a single bill in United States history.

Joe Wilson won't 'splain it that way, of course.

So. when he tries to beat around the bush and 'splain it otherwise, let's all plan to stand up, give him the middle-finger he gave to all but the wealthiest Americans with his Thursday vote, and holler, "You lie!"