The Left-Cheek Ass Clown for September, 2017

The ass clownery continues to swirl around us like the eyewall of a category 5 hurricane*; unfortunately, hurricane season will end in a another month or two, but the ass clownery will go on. And on. And on.

I wrestled with a number of worthy** potential nominees for this period's award, and finally decided to go with the ones in a position to do the largest amount of deliberate damage to the largest number of people. Ladies and gentlemen, Dear Readers,

The Left Cheek Ass Clown Award for September, 2017

is presented to

Senator Lindsey Graham (R, SC)

and

Senator Bill Cassidy (R, LA)

The last gasp of the frantic GOP efforts to kill the Affordable Care Act (ACA) through the budget reconciliation sleight-of-hand has been proposed by Senators Graham and Cassidy, who are desperate to push their bill through before the reconciliation window closes on September 30th. So anxious are they to force things along that the bill will be presented for a vote without the cost assessment - required by law*** - from the Congressional Budget Office.

Leaving aside the fact that, as with all other proposed attempts to kill the ACA, millions of people will lose their health insurance, the political chicanery of using the budget reconciliation process to pass the bill without broad Congressional support makes a mockery of effective government and concern for the public welfare. There is no need to force through a bill that has been denounced by almost every professional medical group, other than insistence on fulfilling an ill-considered campaign promise. As former president Obama noted,

"[This bill has been introduced] without any demonstrable economic, actuarial, or even human rationale for pushing such a bill."

The only rationale is hatred for legislation passed by a former president detested by those now in power; it shows total disregard for the needs of Real People.

Senators Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy are the joint recipients of designation of the Left-Cheek Ass Clown Award for September, 2017. If you need medical help, get it fast, before the GOP pulls the rug out from under you.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow, when Cartoon Saturday pulls into the digital station.

Bilbo

* I'm sure there will be some who will call me insensitive for using that comparison, but they're as welcome to their opinion as I am to mine.

** I hate to use that word, but it more-or-less fits.

***  2 U.S.C. § 661b.