There are no "moderate" Republicans

Since the day the House passed it's version of ACA repeal, we've been assured by pundits that the more sober and deliberative Senate would mitigate the damage or perhaps stop the bill entirely.  The Louisiana press alone has produced several volumes on the subject of Bill Cassidy's "compassion" over the past month alone.

It's all nonsense, of course. There aren't actually any "moderate" Republicans in the world's most conservative governing chamber. The only compassion that obtains there is reserved for wealthy taxpayers.

It would also repeal virtually all the tax increases imposed by the Affordable Care Act to pay for itself, in effect handing a broad tax cut to the affluent, paid for by billions of dollars sliced from Medicaid, a health care program that serves one in five Americans, not only the poor but two-thirds of those in nursing homes. The bill, drafted in secret, is likely to come to the Senate floor next week, and could come to a vote after 20 hours of debate.

Since there aren't any moderate Republicans coming to save us from this, one would like to think that at least the opposition party could find the will to mount something like a coherent counter. But that doesn't seem likely either.

One of Ossoff’s more well-circulated ads (entitled “Table”) found him sitting alone at a kitchen table, aping a line from Margaret Thatcher to bemoan how “both parties in Congress waste a lot of your money.” In the folksy imagery and call to reduce the deficit, he invoked a trope that’s been circulated for years by pollster Frank Luntz and other right-wing goons to justify painful spending cuts: if hard-working American families have to make tough choices about their finances, then why doesn’t Washington?

One party gleefully steals your health care money and uses it to pay off its wealthy donor base while the other sits down at your "table" to lecture you about making tough choices. Nobody in this picture seems to be of much help. We'll keep looking for those moderate Republicans, though. Let us know if you find any.  Maybe they'll know what to do.