The House Republicans were in a tough spot. They could admit that it wasn’t possible to actually deliver on their long-standing promise to do better than Obamacare. That would be embarrassing. Or they could go ahead and pass a health-care bill that takes away massive amounts of coverage and gives the money to rich people. That would only be criminal-level deception and cruelty. Decisions, decisions! Embarrassment, or criminal-level deception and cruelty? It was a moment of truth, but then they remembered who they really are: Republicans! Criminal-level deception and cruelty it shall be!

Now the remnant sane parts of the country are trying to console themselves with the thought that the Senate will save us from the House. Not likely. Because, guess what? They are Republicans over there, too! And the Republicans are in office for one reason only: to find money to give back to rich people in tax cuts. That’s the whole point now. The GOP senators will squirm and dissemble in their own upper-chamber sort of way, but the inescapable dynamics are at work there, too. They have to find money to give to the rich in tax cuts. And what could be a more tempting place to get it from than sick people?

AD

AD

But it’s not just the “Twilight Zone” in atmospherics. It is twilight in terms of American governance. If your representatives are passing laws that they haven’t read, that haven’t been scored, that do the opposite of what they claim to do, and then lie to your face about it and whoop and cheer their efforts as a giant victory, you know that the system is breaking, or is already broken. And it is not just a little broken. These people are not merely stumbling into error. They know what they are up to, and they have been pursuing it relentlessly, vehemently and deliberately for decades now.

Their patrons will have their tax cuts, and the rest is simply sermons from the talking heads that no one will hear. Now you may cue “Eleanor Rigby.” All that remains is some wiping the dirt from their hands as they walk from the graves. No one was saved.