Let's get the obvious out of the way first: Ted Cruz sucks. In Al Franken's new book Giant of the Senate, which you absolutely should read, because it's both insightful from a policy perspective and hilarious, Franken finds a way to tell stories about Jeff Sessions and Mitch McConnell that make you see them as complicated people who are trying their best even if their views are abhorrent. He makes a point of explaining how important it is that he respects his colleagues. The one exception in the book? Ted Cruz, who warrants an entire chapter dedicated to anecdotes showing just how awful a human Ted Cruz is.

Anyway, Cruz, in his typical pompous ass way, believes he has solved the Senate's health care bill. His proposal is designed to allow moderate Republicans who are still on the fence to claim they saved the Obamacare protections that are popular with voters while simultaneously allowing insurers to offer plans that don't include such protections, thus costing the government less and pleasing hard-line right-wingers like Cruz. If you're thinking to yourself, how the hell would that work? The short answer is that it wouldn't. But here's how Cruz lays it out, according to Vox.

If an insurance company offers at least one plan in the state that is compliant with the (Obamacare) mandates, that company can also sell any additional plan that consumers desire. What that does is it maintains the existing protections, but it gives consumers additional new options above and beyond of what they can purchase today.

On first blush this seems great. More options! As long as there's one plan that has Obamacare protections, then there can be skimpy cheap plans. Everyone wins! Except... this is not how the health care industry works. Health care premiums only stay low if healthy people buy into the system; that's the reason the individual mandate exists. You need the pool of insured people to be balanced between healthy and sick.

What this plan would do is lead to sick people buying the Obamacare-compliant packages because they need the protections, while healthy people would buy the cheaper plans because they don't need them in the moment. This would lead to the Obamacare-compliant plans featuring giant premiums to offset the unbalanced pool. Put simply: This will not actually save those protections, it will just appear to save those protections. Ted Cruz is acting like this is a genius policy move when it's actually just a crock of shit.

And as for the White House, which seems focused on Trump's attack of Mika Brzezinski this morning?

THEY ARE GLAD PEOPLE AREN'T WRITING ABOUT HOW THEY ARE KILLING PEOPLE WITH THIS HEALTH CARE BILL.

People's lives are literally at risk, and if we don't make a point to care, no one will. Certainly not Republicans who are more concerned with looking like they care than actually caring.

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