Dear Congress,

It’s been two days since you released the bill to the public. It’s been an incredibly painful 24 hours for that plan, which has been torn apart and trashed every which way. Spare yourselves any more embarrassment and declare the bill dead. Then, go back to the drawing board.

There is no doubt you have some indications of conservative healthcare policy in there. But, the major problems – which have been detailed here and elsewhere – are too big to overlook. The bill fails in the fundamental promise that has kept conservative voters with you since 2010: to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

And, look, I get it. The ACA is a monstrosity that will disrupt not just Americans’ insurance, but likely a chunk of the economy as well if you just flat-out repeal it. That is why we nodded and said “Okay, fine, repeal and replace.”

Instead, you wrote and released to the public a bill that amends the Affordable Care Act, and does so in barely enough ways to count.

It is a fact that many insurers are pulling out. The system will collapse on its own. You could very well leave it to its own devices. But, that’s not going to move quick enough for you, is it? You want to do this now. I get that. I’m okay with that. I do think that letting it collapse on its own will be disruptive to too many people and to the economy. That’s why I thought repeal and replace would be a good idea.

But this? This is not a good idea. There is no repeal, and without repeal, there is no replace. There are plenty of good healthcare and health insurance reforms out there that you can work to implement, and they should be looked at. You should have looked more closely at them.

It is not too late to scrap it and start over, but you need to do so quickly if you plan to plow through this, a budget, and tax reform before the end of the summer.