Suggestion: Please Leave Congress If You're Actively Dying

It seems obvious! And yet.

The late Gerry Connolly. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Here’s something I thought would be obvious but seems to need saying: if you are actively dying, maybe Congress is not the place for you.

I know, I know, it’s not groundbreaking stuff—except it apparently is if you’re a member of the Democratic Party, an organization stuffed to the gills with people clinging to the spoils of office even as they are getting pulled forcibly into the afterlife.

I say all of this because, this morning, House Republicans passed their so-called “one big beautiful bill” by the razor-thin margin of 215-214. The bill is, surprise surprise, appalling—great for rich people and other assorted evil fiends, terrible for everyone else. Among other things, it cuts nearly $1 trillion, with a t, from Medicaid and food stamps. Cool.

But let’s go back to that 215-214 margin. That’s literally as close as you can get. All 212 Democrats voted against the bill. Two Republicans voted no, one voted present, and two Republicans didn’t vote—in one case because the guy had fallen asleep.

Crazy stuff! But hang on a second. If I recall correctly (and I do, because I just looked it up), Democrats won 215 seats at the last election. But only 212 of them voted this morning. What happened to those three votes?

You probably know where this is going. But I’ll just leave some space for you to guess.

OK, time’s up. What happened?