If this is what they did with their approach to healthcare, which they had seven years to refine and perfect, you can only imagine what's going to happen when this Congress and this president get together and try to produce a budget. Actually, you don't have to imagine it, because some of the proposals are beginning to leak out, and they're just as psychedelically awful as you'd think they'd be.

For example, how are we going to pay for the big, beautiful wall with the big, beautiful door in it? Well, we're pretty much going to eviscerate everything that actually helps protect the country and its people. From The Washington Post:

The proposal, drawn up by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), also would slash the budget of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which provides disaster relief after hurricanes, tornadoes and other natural disasters. The Coast Guard's $9.1 billion budget in 2017 would be cut 14 percent to about $7.8 billion, while the TSA and FEMA budgets would be reduced about 11 percent each to $4.5 billion and $3.6 billion, respectively…The plan puts the administration in the unusual position of trading spending on security programs for other security priorities at the southern border, raising questions among Republican lawmakers and homeland-security experts. "The Budget prioritizes DHS law enforcement operations, proposes critical investments in front line border security and funds continued development of robust cybersecurity defenses," the draft said. "The Budget aggressively implements the President's commitment to construct a physical wall along the southern border."

If you happen to be, say, a swordfisherman on Georges Bank in the middle of a storm, you may be out of luck. But, if you're an epidemic virus, for example, your vetting is likely to be something less than extreme. Again, we're back with the blind, staggering beast that is the new healthcare plan. From NBC News:

And the new health care replacement bill released Monday night by Republican leaders in Congress would slash a billion-dollar prevention fund designed to help protect against those and other threats. The Prevention and Public Health Fund accounts for 12 percent of the budget for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The 2010 Affordable Care Act set it up specifically to try to lower health costs by preventing diseases before they happen. The CDC uses it to help states deliver vaccines, watch for infectious diseases, keep an eye out for lead in water, promote breastfeeding in hospitals, prevent suicide and watch out for hospital-associated infections. It totals $931 million for 2017. It really is a core activity," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, the CDC's acting director. Not only would the proposed American Health Care Act explicitly cut the fund, but President Donald Trump has said his 2018 budget would chop domestic spending and funnel more cash to the Defense Department.

This would be madness even under a government that wasn't so full of people invested in denying what's going on with the planet. The climate crisis is going to bring us more bad storms, so let's gut FEMA and the Coast Guard. The climate crisis—and the globalized society—already has produced dangerous epidemics, one of which reached as far as Houston, so let's shred the CDC, and especially the program designed to fight that very phenomenon.

And let's do it secure in the knowledge that this president thinks the climate crisis is a Chinese hoax, and that he will sign anything in front of him because he doesn't know dick about anything and because it will give him a big, beautiful wall in front of which to pose. These really are the fcking mole people.

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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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