Republican Lawmakers as Lemmings?

an insult to lemmings everywhere

like lemmings into the sea

Republican lawmakers are in the process of passing Donald Trump’s so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” — H.R. 1, already passed both chambers, now heading for compromise version. This Bill was pushed in the Senate as a “reconciliation” bill, a procedure ordinarily employed because it cannot be blocked by filibuster (which would require 60 votes to pass) and is restricted to be limited, supposedly, to budgetary items and, again supposedly, to long-term deficit reduction.

The Congressional website defines the purpose of the One Big Beautiful Bill as follows: This bill reduces taxes, reduces or increases spending for various federal programs, increases the statutory debt limit, and otherwise addresses agencies and programs throughout the federal government. While it is impossible to pin down details, as the Senate and House now have to find agreement, there are a few main themes:

• Renews the 2017 tax cuts which overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest Americans

• “Pays for” these tax cuts, as reconciliation demands, by reducing expenses going to Medicaid and the nutrition program S.N.A.P. (FKA food stamps), programs obviously benefitting, until now, the economically challenged

• Huge increases to immigration enforcement to expand deportations (no increased funding for providing due process to the accused)

• Republican lawmakers must look directly into the camera and tell, with a straight face, this falsehood daily — “this bill does not cut Medicaid.” (Medicaid savings will come by recipients “leaving the program” due to burdensome administrative and work requirements)

In true Donald Trump form, the President is demanding to have the Bill approved for his signature on July 4th. In true Trump-era Republican heroism, several Senators like Josh Hawley have been pretending they will vote against the bill. You can read my piece on Dr. Bill Cassidy’s capitulation to Robert Kennedy’s nomination to HHS Secretary to see how these brave Senators will cave in, perhaps with a long statement of justification or perhaps by hiding in a hole, but you already know — there will be no bravery on display from the ranks of Republican lawmakers.

I have seen no explanation as to how generous tax cuts to the wealthy will benefit anyone other than the wealthy, or why there is such a rush and such secrecy surrounding the negotiations. There is broad agreement, however, that between 10 and 20 million less fortunate Americans will lose healthcare coverage resulting from changes to administration of Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. Further, there is broad agreement these “cuts” in the healthcare arena will result in the loss of rural medical facilities and medical capacity all over the country. Additionally, in spite of the “fun with numbers” Republican legislators will hide behind, every objective evaluation of this legislation also seems to leave a giant turd behind — a $3,000,000,000,000 to $5,000,000,000,000 increase in the national debt.

Because the consequences of this legislation seem so certain to fall most heavily on Trump/ Republican voters many pundits are applying the old idiom, “like lemmings into the sea” or “lemmings over the cliff” to describe the risk Republican lawmakers face of “political suicide.” This reference to these rodents of the genus Lemmus is employed, in case you aren’t familiar, based upon their reputation for large groups blindly and “suicidally” following a leader over a cliff or into water. The question, of course, is whether Republican lawmakers gave any thought to how their constituents would be impacted by this Bill or simply elected to follow Donald Trump’s wishes with no thought to the damage done to those they represent or to their own honor. I have to say, however, that this is a grossly unfair characterization — not of Republican lawmakers, but of lemmings.

Lemmings do not irrationally commit suicide. Instead, when a population outgrows its environment large groups are likely to break off and migrate to a different area, sometimes even swimming to a new location. Unlike Republican lawmakers, this lemming instinct protects the bulk of a vulnerable population even if a few are lost in the migration. Apparently, the lemming mass suicide myth has remained popular due to its accuracy as a metaphor for human behavior. Brittanica shares an unseemly story that gets back to our discussion of Republican lawmakers in some ways, however.

But the biggest reason the myth endures? Deliberate fraud. For the 1958 Disney nature film White Wilderness, filmmakers eager for dramatic footage staged a lemming death plunge, pushing dozens of lemmings off a cliff while cameras were rolling. The images—shocking at the time for what they seemed to show about the cruelty of nature and shocking now for what they actually show about the cruelty of humans—convinced several generations of moviegoers that these little rodents do, in fact, possess a bizarre instinct to destroy themselves.

After hearing this I’m tending to think of Republican lawmakers not so much as lemmings, but more like the Disney filmmakers shoving these innocent rodents off a cliff to perpetuate a gigantic lie. You know, kind of like “this Bill does not cut Medicaid.” We will see if Republican voters remain as detached from reality as their elected representatives as the consequences of this legislation descends upon their heads. Whether yes or whether no, it’s time to leave the lemmings out of the discussion.