Seth Meyers spent more than 10 minutes ridiculing President Donald Trump and the Republican Party for their doomed bid to replace the Affordable Care Act with “something terrific,” taping his show just as the House leadership decided to postpone its vote on the bill to Friday.
“House Republicans were forced to delay a vote on their health-care bill today after acknowledging they didn’t have the votes to pass it,” the Late Night host said Thursday, highlighting the president’s decision to spend part of his day playing trucker. “In fairness, he had just seen this bumper sticker,” Meyers said, showing a message on the screen that read, “Honk if you’re tragically unqualified.”
As “troubling” as the revelations about the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia are, Meyers said, “what the Republicans have been doing with health care may be just as outrageous and will certainly affect more Americans.” After years of criticizing Democrats for rushing Obamacare through Congress, he said Republicans have been “literally rewriting their bill behind closed doors, with no public input.”
In order to appease “hard-line conservatives,” House Republicans have agreed to strip away the “essential health benefits” that Obamacare forced insurance companies to include. “That’s right, Republicans think your insurance plan shouldn’t be required to cover hospitals,” Meyers said. “But don’t worry, every American gets one free ride on the cart that picks up your dead.”
Republicans “just don’t seem to understand how this works,” the host continued, suggesting that they are going to need prostate cancer screenings “because they clearly pulled this bill out of their asses.”
“So, Republicans are radically reshaping one-fifth of the economy in a matter of hours, behind closed doors, with no public input,” Meyers said. “That is insane, cruel, and reckless,” he added, before playing clips of GOP lawmakers accusing Democrats of doing just that with Obamacare.
“Now that we’ve proven ourselves to be craven hypocrites, hell-bent on kicking millions of people off insurance, can you believe a word we say?” Meyers asked. “Hell no you can’t,” former House Speaker John Boehner replied.