Massive Knob Calls for Civility

Last night, hours before the Senate’s latest attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with a massive wealth transfer to the rich was revealed, the Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan had a plea: Could you be nice to me, please?

Back in June, some other twats in Congress passed a resolution calling for a National Day of Civility on July 12. Several members of Congress from both sides of the aisle tweeted about the hallowed day yesterday.

To mark the occasion, Ryan, saying the “#NationalDayOfCivility offers an awesome reminder for us all to improve the tone of debate,” posted a video to Twitter showing Ryan delivering a guidance counselor-style lecture on the value of civil debate to a group of unfortunate Congressional staffers. Ryan pleads that we, as a fractured nation, should “improve our tone,” and “have a great debate on ideas” rather than “ad hominem attacks.”

Ryan can piss off. His plea for civility came shortly before he vowed to keep the House in session to pass a healthcare bill that, if enacted, will cut hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicaid spending and healthcare subsidies, and cause the cost of insurance plans that actually offer comprehensive coverage to skyrocket. Ryan has previously referred to the devastating effects of his party’s legislation as 22 million Americans “choos[ing]” not to be insured. [Correction: This piece originally mistakenly attributed an op-ed written by Senator Rand Paul to Rep. Paul Ryan. Quotes from the op-ed have been removed.]

So, to clarify: It is civil to spend your days trying to ensure that children born with expensive diseases reach their lifetime limits of how much health insurance companies will pay for their care before they speak their first words, and that poor people with cancer be forced to die in debt as well as in agony. But it is not civil to call Paul Ryan a piece of shit for those actions.

As our colleague Hamilton wrote last month, civility “seems like a pressing matter when you already have everything else you require.” The only thing Ryan wants for today is a signed healthcare bill that will, as he’s dreamed of since college, make life impossibly horrible for sick poor people.