Congressman Kennedy Sticks It To Paul Ryan

Republican Paul Ryan has always struck me as an imperious, callous bastard, out of touch with the suffering of others, but always claiming to be a pious Catholic. In his white-bred , privileged world, a measure of one’s worthiness to lead has always been how much water he can carry for wealthy corporate donors, never how much assistance he can provide for the elderly, the poor, and the downtrodden. His jimmied-up health care bill, Obamacare with the guts extracted, will provide undeserved tax cuts to his base—gazillionaires who are already provided for. It would raise premiums and deductibles for the peons he sneers at, eradicate Medicaid, and kill off thousands of the elderly before their time. The Obamacare death panels he carped about endlessly have become a self-prophecy.

Yet Ryan smugly stood before cameras the other day and called Trumpcare an “act of mercy.” I’ve never heard such a condescending pronouncement from on high by any politician. The only mercy his disastrous plan will provide is the mercy of the grave for those who will no longer be able to afford health care. I wanted to pick up a sock and stuff it down Ryan’s throat; obligingly, Congressman Joseph Kennedy III, grandson of Bobby Kennedy, did it for me:

"I was struck last night by a comment that I heard made by Speaker Ryan, where he called this repeal bill 'an act of mercy.' With all due respect to our speaker, he and I must have read different Scripture…The one I read calls on us to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to shelter the homeless, and to comfort the sick. It reminds us that we are judged not by how we treat the powerful, but by how we care for the least among us. There is no mercy in a system that makes health care a luxury. There is no mercy in a country that turns their back on those most in need of protection: the elderly, the poor, the sick, and the suffering. There is no mercy in a cold shoulder to the mentally ill. This is not an act of mercy. It is an act of malice."