THE EDITORIAL BOARD

What a shameful picture.

The two Republicans who represent Western North Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives stood gleefully flanking President trump last week, one on each side, reveling in prominent roles in unraveling the Affordable Care Act.

But just what are they celebrating?

Why, exactly, would Mark Meadows and Patrick McHenry exult in passage of a measure that would strip their state of $6 billion in Medicaid funding, money that provides medical care for children, the disabled and the elderly?

Are the constituents they pictured in their minds as they cheered and giggled in the Rose Garden some magical breed of healthful, eternal youth? Robots incapable of contracting diseases or bearing children? Because those of us waiting at home are certainly not that.

About 2 million people in North Carolina rely on Medicaid. That includes 42 percent of all children and 21 percent of senior citizens and the disabled.

“With this kind of federal cut ... North Carolina’s going to be the one on the hook,” said Brendan Riley, a health care analyst with the left-leaning N.C. Justice Center. “There’s not really any fat in the Medicaid program.”

Just ask all the women who planned on delivering babies at Mission Health’s Angel Hospital in Franklin how that worked out.

And why would Meadows and McHenry like a plan that could add $6,000 a year to the cost of coverage for the 500,000 North Carolinians who buy their insurance on the open market? In general, said Duke University health care researcher David Anderson, the young and wealthy will pay less while the poor and older will either pay more or lose coverage.

Meadows and McHenry haven’t held a town hall here in a while, so perhaps they’ve just forgotten that their part of the state looks much more like the latter.

“North Carolina is an expensive state with high premiums,” Anderson said, due in part to its unusually large rural population. There’s no reason to believe the GOP health bill will change that. Even if premiums do decrease, higher deductibles and reductions in coverage could wipe out any savings.

And what do Meadows and McHenry think of provisions for people with pre-existing conditions? The bill supposedly will protect them. In fact, it was the addition of $6 billion for that purpose that won over critical votes needed for passage. Still, there is no guarantee that such coverage, if available, will be even remotely affordable.

One of the more bizarre forecasts is that the bill would save about $3 billion in Social Security benefits over the next 10 years. That’s because people would be dying sooner.

This prediction, by the Congressional Budget Office, may be out of date. It applies to the original bill. The amended bill the House approved was rammed through without waiting for CBO figures.

Again, this seems to have been of no concern to Meadows and McHenry. In the wake of the House vote both were clearly visible in photos taken during the White House celebration. Meadows, who now lives in Asheville, was just behind the president while McHenry, of Cherryville, was not far away.

Make no mistake, each played a pivotal role in passage. Meadows, head of the right-leaning Freedom Caucus, was prominent in negotiating with moderates the changes necessary to get the bill passed. McHenry, as a deputy whip, was a key player in rounding up the votes and stifling what consciences remain in Washington.

If Democrats are right, it will have been a pyrrhic victory, with House Republicans alienating voters to pass a bill that the Senate will scuttle. We’ll see.

It’s hard to understand why Republicans are so fixated on repealing the Affordable Care Act. Evidently, they are more concerned with destroying the legacy of Barack Obama than looking after their people. We can think of one reason why, but we’d rather not.

Normally, we would take pride in having two such influential congressmen from our corner of the nation. But instead of a legacy Western North Carolinians can be proud of, say in leading the way on education or an innovative craft brewing economy, we’re yet again cast as the folks who brought you a government shutdown and a national obsession with public bathrooms.

Whatever their answers – and whatever the outcome from the Senate – North Carolina voters will remember what their leaders did long after the champagne goes flat.

We will be here to remind them.