I found Mitch McConnell’s statement a few years ago that his top political priority was to deny President Obama a second term to be downright reprehensible. Only to be topped by his (false) claim that Supreme Court Justices are never approved in the final months of a president’s term, which killed Merrick Garland’s chance to be a great Supreme Court Justice.

Had a Democrat made such a statement, it would have been a battle cry for the ages. But, when a GOP leader makes reprehensible statements, we are just supposed to accept them. Just like when TheDonald simply invents facts.

Which brings up the new situation that will obtain should TheDonald, Paul Ryan, and McConnell have their way with the Farm Bill meandering through the Congressional approval process. Starting with the chicanery that SNAP (aka Food Stamps) needs a work requirement. Like these folks simply suck at the government teat.

Nope. It’s WalMart, McDonald’s, KMart, and their ilk that do so- by paying their employees so little money that they need supplemental benefits to survive. And, just so you know- more than 80% of those who receive SNAP benefits have been employed.

(By the way, WalMart would be virtually PROFITLESS if it paid its employees a living wage; instead, they claim profits, leaving it to the US citizenry to bail out their employees. Why is it that we- the US citizens- don’t appropriate those profits to pay back our government coffers, so we have enough funds for infrastructure improvements? Oh, right. Because it’s only the workers who have to suffer, while corporate executives rake in excessive salaries and claim how great they are because of the profits they steal from their employees’ paychecks.)

Back to the Farm bill appropriation and allocation. It seems that the goal is to insert a health-care provision into the bill. Providing agribusinesses with grants or loans to provide health coverage to their members. As a means of insuring rural Americans.

Now, this may sound familiar to you. Because this was exactly what PPACA (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare) provided. Until Congress slashed the funding for the program- and converted those grants to loans.   (Actually, the amount was slashed 1/4 of the promised funds, to boot!) And, then Congress refused to provide the funds promised for risk-adjustment, leaving these rural co-ops high and dry.

Which justified the statements of folks like (GOP) Senator Orrin Hatch that “…the co-ops were doomed to fail from the outset…limited to less profitable markets…”. But, they would have survived with the funding promised them BEFORE they quoted the rates- which funds were then precluded from their treasuries after the insurance year began. (That recission meant rate adjustments to reflect the changed circumstances couldn’t be applied to subscribers.) Which is why only 3 of the 23 co-ops can still be found operating- all in rural areas- Montana, Wisconsin, and Maine. (The fourth in New Mexico is kind of in limbo, being part of Evolent Health.)

There will be a difference between the PPACA co-ops and the Farm Bill co-ops, though. PPACA had to cover everyone and anyone. The farm bill is working through associations- and these entities know their members, so they can better guesstimate cost structures. Oh, yeah. These farm co-ops don’t have to offer real health coverage, either- but can pick and choose what they will offer members.

But, it is interesting that the GOP- that has been adamant against government-subsidized health coverage when it was proposed by Obama- loves it when Ryan, McConnell, and TheDonald want to offer slightly worse alternatives.

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