Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and others can repeat the lie that no one will lose coverage, but it does not make it so. Seventeen million people will lose healthcare (including 11 million Medicaid beneficiaries). Millions will lose food assistance. The debt will grow by over $3 trillion.
It is hard to find anyone outside the MAGA cult who thinks this will benefit America. Republicans respond by lying about the bill even when confronted with the misery their handiwork will cause.
Republicans refuse to admit that they are hurting ordinary, hard-working Americans trying to provide for themselves and their families. To do otherwise would be a confession of their inhumanity. Instead, using well-worn authoritarian techniques (e.g., demonization, dehumanization and marginalization), MAGA politicians convince themselves that those who rely on vital benefits are unfit and undeserving. Republicans dub them “rats” or “vermin” or “murderers.”
If the bill passes the House, the pain in all 50 states will no longer be abstract. MAGA Republicans’ betrayal will hurt and, yes, kill tens of thousands of Americans. And everyone will know which party is responsible. Republicans have no plausible excuse for putting the interests of billionaires over those of ordinary people.
