The Moral Crusaders

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I’ll remind you that House Republicans have now voted to defund Obamacare over 40 times knowing full well that the Democratic Senate would never accede. Not to mention that the man whose name is on the bill probably wouldn’t be keen on defunding his one (and basically only) achievement.

Granted, some insanities are worse than others. Casual conspiracy theorists are a tolerable mainstay of nearly every Thanksgiving dinner after all. It’s less amusing when loony Uncle Bobby is elected to Congress (Louie Gohmert, I’m looking at you).

The cause célèbre for congressional Republicans is a courageous and noble crusade against expanded healthcare coverage for Americans. Under the banner of fiscal conservatism, Republicans have committed to the solemn task of threatening to shut down the government and default on the debt.

“It only takes one with passion—look at Rosa Parks, Lech Walesa, Martin Luther King,” Representative Ted Yoho, Republican of Florida, actually said, deftly equating the struggles for civil rights, worker solidarity, and bankrupting the poor and disenfranchised.

In the other chamber, the fight is being led by Senator Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican wunderkind and tea partier extraordinaire, who is promising to “fight at every step to stop the biggest job killer in America.” Obamacare might be the biggest job killer in America if you excluded Ted Cruz’s Congress, which, according to the Congressional Budget Office, will slash economic growth by 1.5 percent because of its ill-thought-out fiscal policies. Remember the halcyon days when sequestration was an impossibly idiotic bargaining chip looming on the distant future instead of the norm?

I note in passing that Cruz is also the man who thinks the United Nations will use a secretive Agenda 21 to destroy private property, endorses states forming a compact to nullify Obamacare, and made an entire campaign ad about a successful execution.

The campaign to sabotage, defund, or maim the upcoming healthcare implementation on October 1 has devolved to Batman-level villainy. Governors refuse to bring more dollars into states through Medicaid expansions. Some states are imposing laws that restrict outreach and education about the law.

Best of all, a Koch-funded enterprise, un-ironically named Generation Opportunity, is aimed at discouraging young Americans from signing up for health insurance (and thus incurring a tax penalty) through ads featuring a creepy Uncle Sam who apparently will be federally mandated to lurk under exam tables if Obamacare succeeds.

In keeping with the people-first theme, Republicans also voted on Thursday to cut the food stamps program by $40 billion over the next 10 years.

"This bill is designed to give people a hand when they need it most,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said as he passed a bill designed to give people a finger when they need a hand most.

“Most people don't choose to be on food stamps. Most people want a job,” he continued. Unfortunately, people who want jobs but can’t find one still want food.

But never mind that 92 percent of food stamps recipients are children, the elderly, the disabled, or adults who are already working—the program must be cut to punish the freeloaders in the same way that the Pentagon’s funding would be slashed in the case of collateral damage.

Congressman Kevin Cramer, Republican of North Dakota, even justified the cuts in biblical terms, quoting Thessalonians 3:10 and writing, “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” Interestingly, the exact verse was a favorite of Vladimir Lenin’s, who called it “the practical commandment of socialism.” And we all know how that ended.

It takes quite some chutzpah: Republicans enact (blackmail, if we are being honest) counterproductive fiscal policies that keep people out of work, then blame the people who are out of work for the country’s economic woes. Oh, and then take food from 3.8 million people.

But we haven’t even started the true negotiations yet.

Now there is a whole array of guns for congressional conservatives to point at the government’s head, from forcing a government shutdown this October to a potentially ruinous default on America’s debt unless their demands are met. Like defunding Obamacare and requiring that the Keystone XL pipeline be built.

Yet these people are actually elected officials—amazingly, a sizable portion of the country agrees with this party.

To paraphrase Baudelaire, the finest trick the Republicans ever pulled was convincing the country that the greatest threats to the nation are people receiving food and healthcare.

Idrees M. Kahloon '16 is a Crimson editorial writer in Dunster House. His column appears on alternate Tuesdays. Follow him on Twitter @ikahloon.