You know that feeling you get when you want to laugh – but you can’t ?  Maybe your toddler covered himself with toothpaste and made a huge mess.  You need to teach him right from wrong but he looks so silly.  Maybe you made an inappropriate joke and someone is telling you why it wasn’t funny but the joke just keeps playing in your head and, in fact, it was funny.  Perhaps you’ve completely failed at “humanity” and you’ve figured out how to inflict pain and suffering  on huge swaths of the most vulnerable Americans – all so you can give rich people even more – and you can barely contain your glee.  It’s the mouth gives you away.  You try to sit, all serious and important but the edges of your mouth keep involuntarily pulling up at the edges, betraying your true feelings.

Paul Ryan has managed to come across as one of the more sane members of the House (admittedly, a low bar) through most of his career – until now, anyway.  He’s finally able to unleash his “vision” on Americans and he doesn’t seem to give much of a fig about who he harms or how he harms them – so long as the rich get more.

Enter the Republican excuse for a “replacement” plan for the Affordable Care Act.  They call theirs the ‘American Health Care Act’.  According to the Congressional Budget Office, it will eliminate health care for up to 24 million people.  The Affordable Care Act is credited with providing coverage to 20 million people who didn’t have it before.  One does not need to be a math genius to see that MORE people will be without health insurance once Ryan is done with them than before the ACA.

But, hey, they’ll only be old folks, poor folks, the disabled, and kids.  The Ryan/Trump plan is SO cruel, even Tucker Carlson of Fox “News” says it goes too far.  Ryan just shrugs.  “We said we were going to repeal all the Obamacare taxes…”  Watch the clip.  (…if you can.  This is my first foray into “clip-inclusion” and I may have screwed it up…)  Ryan seems to be having fun with the entire subject.  NOTHING is as important to him as giving rich people the break they so sorely need.

It’s the smirk that irks.  He seems to be having such…fun with it.

The only saving grace is that he seems to be the only one.  I guess his district is pretty safely gerrymandered so he’s not too worried about potential backlash but many of his colleagues are not so sanguine.  They see elections looming and they’re worried people might hold them responsible for their actions.  (It seems like that should happen, sooner or later…)   They fear they won’t be able to blame Democrats since the Democrats have no power in Congress.

So, they’re already introducing changes.  The GOP has long depended on the support of old folks who have come to realize this Ryan/Trump plan does them more harm than good so the plan now offers higher tax credits to seniors.  Lest the GOP be seen as too soft, though, they’ve included a provision to make it even tougher on the poor.  According to Reuters, “U.S. House Republicans are working on changes to their healthcare overhaul bill to provide more generous tax credits for older Americans and add a work requirement for the Medicaid program for the poor, House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Sunday.”

Because, you know, those poor people just have it too easy in life…

I’ll tell you this: I don’t know if this affront to humanity is going to pass or not but it’s rare when one gets to see a “person” having so much fun at the mere prospect of inflicting so much pain into so many lives in such a short period of time and, for me, it’s that smirk that gives him away…

Am I wrong or am I right?