The Republicans were out there all weekend selling their big tax-cut package. It wasn't the fact that they were so obviously lying about it—No Medicaid cuts!—that was unnerving, because we're all used to people like Ari Fleischer and Kellyanne Conway playing Edward Scissorhands with the truth. It was more what they were saying about their true feelings toward the millions of Americans whose health will be collateral damage from the passage of the big tax-cut package.

For example, here's Conway, speaking on ABC to The Clinton Guy Shocked By Blowjobs:

But let me get back to Medicaid for a second, because I can't just let it sit there unanswered, George. If you're currently in Medicaid, if you became a Medicaid recipient through the Obamacare expansion, you're grandfathered in. We're talking about in the future. You know, Obamacare took Medicaid, which was designed to help the poor, the needy, the elderly, the sick, the disabled also children, and pregnant women, it took it and it went way above the poverty line and opened it up to many able-bodied Americans who should probably find other -- should at least see if there are other options for them.

If they're able-bodied and they want to work, then they'll have employer-sponsored benefits like you and I do, so...

Here we have a remarkable moment. Conway is telling an obvious lie but, in doing so, she's revealing an undeniable truth about the Republican attempts to cut taxes on the back of the sick and the dying. There are "deserving" sick people and "undeserving" sick people. Government programs are always defined in the minds of these people as vehicles for…wait for it…waste, fraud, and abuse. The big black buck with his T-bone steak is never far from their minds.

If you don't believe me, then check out Vice President Mike Pence. Over the weekend, Pence took to the electric Twitter machine and informed folks that:

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Before summer’s out, we'll repeal/replace Obamacare w/ system based on personal responsibility, free-market competition & state-based reform pic.twitter.com/JzCyxX9kJb — Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) June 24, 2017

Again, Pence tells a blatant lie while revealing his true feelings about the programs his administration is trying to decimate. See the joker in the deck there? "Personal responsibility"? Get up out of that bed, Grampa, with your Alzheimer's. It's time to demonstrate some individual responsibility. Off to work, nine-year-old with diabetes. How dare you be lazy enough to contract a serious genetic disease? Lift your genome up by its bootstraps and get cracking.

Jesus, these really are the fcking mole people.

(To be fair, Conway spent a lot of Monday morning defending her statements, especially in the comfy confines of the Fox and Friends morning special class. She's not lying and/or heartless. We are.)

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(And Pence unlimbered himself while shouldering the burden of preparing to preside at the wedding of Treasury Secretary, and former foreclosure king, Stephen Mnuchin and his lovely bride, Louise Linton, a Scottish actress, who will live in what Vanity Fair called a "stately Massachusetts Avenue Heights mansion which they purchased for around $12 million," perhaps a chunk of the $100 million in assets that Mnuchin forgot to mention to the Senate during his confirmation process.)

And then there's Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin and not the sharpest instrument among the legislative cutlery. (We remember him most fondly for his "shred of freedom" lament outside the Supreme Court as it was deciding the Sebelius case.) He has looked over the proposed tax-cut bill and found its healthcare components to be sadly lacking. Specifically, too many people are being helped at the moment and, therefore, all of us are less free. He took to the op-ed pages of The New York Times to explain why:

The bill's defenders will say it repeals Obamacare's taxes and reduces Medicaid spending growth. That's true. But it also boosts spending on subsidies, and it leaves in place the pre-existing-condition rules that drive up the cost of insurance for everyone.

That's quite enough of that, I guess. Especially since, after railing against the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate for seven years, the Senate dropped this little treat into the mix over the weekend. From The Hill:

The Senate bill would make those who had a lapse in coverage for 63 days or more wait six months before obtaining insurance…The continuous coverage provision was noticeably omitted from the Senate's draft, but aides said they were working behind the scenes to add it. The provision addresses concerns that people would only sign up for health coverage when they're sick if insurers can't deny coverage for pre-existing conditions. The addition of the six-month waiting period could make it more difficult to pass the legislation if the Senate parliamentarian rules the provision violates the complex budget reconciliation rules. Republican leadership was working over the weekend to make sure the provision complies with the rules and can be included.

They can't make it work. They know they can't make it work. If they pass it, they know it won't work except as a way to shove wealth upwards, which it will do splendidly. They know that not even the finest camouflage in the world, not even the shiniest lies, can save them from the fact that it won't work. It's not supposed to work, you see. Not as healthcare, anyway.

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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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