The Senate version of what is called “TrumpCare,” as scored by the Congressional Budget Office, if it becomes law, will cause widespread suffering and death. There will literally be blood on the hands of those who vote for this travesty.
The number of uninsured people will skyrocket under this bill, insurance premiums for elderly, low-income people would rise 280 percent, and older Americans in general will pay more for less coverage. 15 million will lose coverage in the coming year alone.
People are just terrified of what will happen to them. A friend of mine wrote, “my income or lack thereof, my preexisting conditions... It’s like walls could close in on me from all sides.”
This is the real wall Trump is building: a wall between millions and millions of Americans and access to health care.
The poor, the elderly, diabetics, those on dialysis, transgender people, pregnant women, children and adults with disabilities, people with addictions, people with mental health issues, and so many more vulnerable people will suffer and even die from lack of adequate health care.
This is indefensible and Republicans know it. So they are out this week telling lies about what is and is not in the bill and what it will do.
This is utterly shameful and it is sinful.
The biblical prophets knew that to do injustice and then lie about it was the worst kind of sin.
When you do this, the prophet Isaiah said, “your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue mutters wickedness.” Isaiah 59:3
What is so truly, deeply wicked in this bill is that all of this suffering and death is so that a few wealthy Americans can get a tax cut. This gives a new meaning to the term ‘blood money.’ Those in the top 0.1 percent, earning $5 million or more, would receive an average tax cut of nearly $250,000 in 2026.
So really, the Senate bill isn’t a health care bill at all. It is a massive wealth transfer from the poorest and most vulnerable Americans to the top 0.1 percent.
How can anyone think this is just, that this is right in a democracy that is supposed to function for all people?
The operative word there is “people.” There is a philosophy that underlies this contempt for the vulnerable. The philosophy is this: they are not really people in the same way the rich and the privileged are people. They are less than equal and their very vulnerability is laid at their own door, not the door of those whose wealth is built on keeping them poor and less privileged.
But what the biblical prophets like Isaiah knew is that this is the biggest lie of all. Every human life is equally precious to God and to do injustice and then lie about it earns you God’s contempt.
There will be unstaunched blood flowing in Emergency Rooms and in the homes and on the streets for those who cannot get care and it will stain the hands of everyone who votes for this travesty and who carries it out.
And God will know what you did.