The Republican House of Representatives is working on legislation to answer two critical and urgent needs—reauthorizing funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program and boosting Medicaid funding for Puerto Rico by $1 billion in the wake of Hurricane Maria. But there are unacceptable strings attached to their generosity. They're not going to give something to vulnerable people without taking it away from someone else.
The legislation is the first Republican request to direct extra Medicaid money to Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria. The island is still trying to deal with the severe damage it received from the storm.
The legislation from the House Energy and Commerce Committee mirrors a bipartisan proposal in the Senate Finance Committee, but it also includes some potentially controversial offsets.
For example, the House bill would repeal ObamaCare's public health prevention fund and raise Medicare rates for wealthy seniors.
It is completely not partisan to stipulate that the one thing you are going to need after the kind of mass flooding events we've seen in Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico is public health prevention funding. And what does Medicare have to do with any of this? Nothing. But Paul Ryan and his wrecking ball crew are not going to miss any opportunity to try to fuck with it because that's what they do. Democrats consider this must-pass legislation, because it is, because states are facing the prospect of shutting down children's health programs and Puerto Rico is in crisis. So Ryan and team are going to load it with as much awful shit as they can.
Because Republicans are monsters. They have a monster of a president, who travels all the way to Puerto Rico to tell desperate people who don't have drinking water or electricity that they cost us too much. This week, THIS WEEK, they are voting on an unconstitutional anti-abortion bill, because they are "pro-life." Meanwhile, they are championing the rights of the mentally ill to amass guns. Because would-be mass murderers have more rights than pregnant women.
OF COURSE Republicans are going to try to harm as many people as they can in return for extending aid to children and Puerto Rico, because someone's got to fucking suffer.