Thursday’s results on the fiasco that is the Cassidy-Graham-Johnson-Heller-Nash-and-Young dog’s breakfast of a healthcare bill shows that Rank Charlatanism won the race, and won it wire to wire. They really would like to persuade Lisa Murkowski to betray all those people in Anchorage who threw a rally to thank her for her efforts the last time the Senate Republicans tried to immiserate the lives of millions of sick Americans. So, the brain trust behind this latest campaign of vandalizing the national health came up with a novel pitch to convince Murkowski to vote in favor of eviscerating the Affordable Care Act. They would let Alaska keep… the Affordable Care Act.

Put Ron Johnson, Lindsey Graham, and Bill Cassidy in a room, and you’d have to bring in an entire monastery of penitent monks to find an ounce of shame. From CNBC:

Under the tweaks described in the IJR report, Alaska and Hawaii would be the only states to still get the premium tax credits under Obamacare. Medicaid per-capita caps would get delayed in those two states. They would also receive an increased federal Medicaid matching rate, the report said.

Here is where I’d like to mention something to which I have not given sufficient attention. If you’re going to create so shameless an attack on sick people, and if you are going to do it so shamelessly that you’re reversing not only things you said before, but also, as is the case with Murkowski, reversing yourself on the entire raison d’etre of your bill, you need someone with extensive experience at being shameless in public to show you the way.

Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska Getty Images

Hi, there, Rick Santorum, and have I mentioned recently what a colossal dick Rick Santorum is?

From Politico:

While the idea of health care block grants has circulated for years in conservative policy circles, Graham credits Santorum with pushing it as the key to replace Obamacare. “Rick said, ‘Why don’t you just do a block grant like we did with welfare reform,’” Graham said. “When you look at it, it’s such an elegant, fair, common-sense solution to a complicated problem.” Santorum first floated the concept to House conservatives in late March, just days after Speaker Paul Ryan pulled his chamber’s repeal bill from the House floor. The House Freedom Caucus had banded together to block what they deemed “Obamacare lite,” so Santorum began meeting with Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and member Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) to make his pitch. During one meeting early on, Santorum name-dropped Graham. He said he believed his old Senate colleague was also open to the idea of block grants and could help sell it — bridging the divide between moderates and conservatives.

Remember: Rick Santorum was Ted Cruz before Ted Cruz was. He was cordially disliked by his fellow senators; Bob Kerrey once opined that Santorum was Latin for “asshole.” In his last campaign for the Senate, he lost by 15 points to Bob Casey, Jr., who, while a decent skin, is not exactly pyrotechnical on the stump. If Rick Santorum is involved in a piece of legislation, you can count on that piece of legislation being hurtful to people who are easy to hurt, and moralistic to the point of low comedy.

You need someone with extensive experience at being shameless in public to show you the way.

Just look, he’s still bragging about how he spurred the block granting of welfare as part of the welfare “reform” of the mid-1990s. The fact is, the “reforms” of which he’s so proud went sour within a decade. From ThinkProgress:

The percentage of poor families with children, those meant to be the primary beneficiaries of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (TANF, or welfare), who don’t receive benefits has reached a record high, according to a report from Legal Momentum. In 1996, just 28 percent of poor families with children missed out on the benefits. But that share has since soared, and in 2012 it hit a record of 74 percent… 1996 is the year President Clinton signed welfare reform into law, dramatically transforming the program. It changed from cost-sharing model, where the federal government’s contribution to fund state welfare programs increased as need increased, to a block grant, in which the government now gives states a fixed amount and they have wider discretion over how to design their programs. That amount hasn’t changed since the reforms took place, losing 30 percent of its value to inflation. Meanwhile, states have used their latitude to redirect much of the funding and took actions to shrink welfare rolls in the face of budget shortfalls.

So, by all means, let’s convert a huge part of the national economy into a program whereby say, Scott Walker can send your grandmother’s chemo money to a Taiwanese corporation so that its executives don’t have to sit in traffic in Racine. Jesus, how many ways and how often does this country have to demonstrate that it doesn’t want Rick Santorum’s ideas anywhere near public policy? Don’t listen to them, Senator Murkowski. Remember those nice people in Anchorage.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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