Charles Pierce on the executive action taken today by the man "pro-life" white Christians placed in the White House, to undermine healthcare coverage of millions of Americans in need of coverage:
The sheer meanness of the calculations behind the effort to deprive millions of people of their health insurance, including the millions of people who found relief from this nightmare only in the past eight years, is hard for the decent mind to comprehend. On Thursday, the president* signed an order guaranteed to corrupt health insurance marketplaces all across the country, and that corruption will not be an unintended consequence. It will be a deliberate act of vandalism, like cutting a gas line into a house and waiting for the explosion that inevitably will occur.
Trump and that pack o'bastards applauding him are the perps, giggling and sweating into their palms across the street, waiting for the detonation that will shatter so many lives.
And there, prominently displayed in the Getty photo accompanying Pierce's article, laughing and applauding beside the president, is North Carolina Congresswoman Virginia Foxx.
There is North Carolina Congresswoman Virginia Foxx — I repeat — laughing and applauding. She's laughing and applauding an action to snatch much-needed healthcare coverage from millions of needy citizens.
There laughing and applauding is pro-life Catholic Congresswoman Virginia Foxx, a member of the diocese of Bishop Peter Jugis, who has just stated that Catholics who publicly disagree with "fundamental moral tenets" of the Catholic magisterium — like, say, the fundamental moral tenet that every human being has a right to basic healthcare coverage, and that pro-life principles require us to defend healthcare coverage for all — should be punished. Bishop Jugis has just stated that bishops have an obligation to speak out when members of their flock publicly contravene fundamental moral tenets taught by the Catholic magisterium, lest the rest of their flock be led astray.
"Pro-life" Catholic Congresswoman Virginia Foxx, a member of Bishop Jugis' flock, is publicly jubilant about an act that could not more fundamentally contravene pro-life teachings of the Catholic church.
Will Bishop Jugis publicly censure this member of his flock now?
I think we all know the answer to this question — and I think we all know who Bishop Jugis means when he speaks of those who publicly contravene Catholic teaching and should be publicly censured by bishops.
(As I have noted, the photo is a Getty photo that was published with Charles Pierce's article.)