Last May the asset-management firm AllianceBernstein announced that it would be moving its headquarters to Nashville — and creating more than 1,000 jobs here — in part because of $17.5 million in financial incentives provided by the state. Earlier this month, the company’s chief operating officer, Jim Gingrich, joined with local LGBTQ advocates in assailing several bills designed to suppress gay rights in Tennessee, pointing out that such bills in other states have proven to be “anti-growth, anti-job and against the interests of the citizens of those states.”

The fetal-heartbeat bill faces similar opposition from within a traditional Republican camp. All three of Tennessee’s Catholic bishops oppose the bill, and so does Tennessee Right to Life, the primary anti-abortion group in the state. That’s because a losing court battle would force the state to pay costly legal fees — its own and its opponents’ — as well as create a legal precedent that would dog future anti-abortion efforts. Nevertheless, the Tennessee House of Representatives passed the bill on a 65-21 vote.

It now goes to the State Senate for consideration.

It would be easy to dismiss — even laugh at — politicians so resolutely determined to shoot themselves in the foot. But from time to time they do manage to pass laws, and some of those laws cause immense pain to innocent people. In 2015, members of the Republican supermajority rejected a plan by their own Republican governor, Bill Haslam, to expand TennCare, the state’s Medicaid program and provide health insurance to hundreds of thousands of low-income Tennesseans not covered by the Affordable Care Act. Governor Haslam’s plan would have cost the state no additional funds, and it was supported by an overwhelming majority of Tennesseans. Adding insult to injury, the failure to expand Medicaid has caused the widespread closure of hospitals in this state — a dozen so far, with many others teetering on the verge of insolvency — and there have been many other predictable ramifications of leaving so many people without health insurance.

In 2018, the state legislature passed a law that required “able-bodied” Tennesseans who do qualify for TennCare to hold a job or go to school if they wanted to keep their health insurance. The state is currently seeking permission from the federal government to implement this requirement and will presumably get it. When that happens, 68,000 more Tennesseans will lose their health insurance — because they lack transportation, for example, or don’t have access to affordable or reliable child care. The requirements will also cost the state an additional $19 million in administrative costs, even taking into account the money saved by reducing TennCare rolls. Even if Republican lawmakers aren’t concerned about their uninsured fellow citizens, you’d think a figure like that might catch their attention.

Every morning I read Joel Ebert’s heroic statehouse reporting for The Tennessean, Nashville’s daily newspaper, and I wonder what in the world is going on. These are not stupid people. What possible explanation lies behind such stupid behavior?