Paul Ryan said that the House would implement a completely transparent process for repealing and replacing Obamacare. Either Ryan has no idea what his fellow Republicans are up to, or he himself lied about this. He specifically told the  Today Show: We re not hatching some bill in a backroom and plopping it on the American people s front door. Really. There s a problem, considering that Rep. Chris Collins, of New York, said to the Washington Examiner: [The plan will] be made available Thursday morning to Republicans in a basement room of an office building that adjoins the Capitol. That s what they consider transparent? Please! What are they afraid of?According to New York Magazine, the GOP s  replacement  will absolutely rip health insurance away from millions of Americans   the same millions who were able to afford insurance under the ACA. That s especially true for low-income Americans, who benefited greatly from the ACA s expansion of Medicaid, and also the tax subsidies that went towards the cost of premiums for people who made too much for Medicaid, but too little to afford insurance any other way.In Trump s empty speech to a joint session of Congress, he reiterated the old GOP talking points of expanded health savings accounts and tax credits. The thing with those tax credits, though, is that they re based entirely on age. A 50-year old wealthy person would get the same tax credit as a 50-year old poor person. That gives the poor a lot less help than they re getting now, while the rich get a tax credit they don t need.But isn t that par for the course for the GOP? Anything to help their rich buddies, and the poor can go fuck themselves, because they really should have thought of all of this before they decided to be poor. Right? Right.Wrong. That would be part of why House Republicans only want this plan to be made available to Republicans. Democrats and everyone else would rightfully blast it for what it is   more help to the rich while leaving the poor in the dust.The rest of the problems likely have to do with insurance coverage and the deficit, but according to Collins, the House Health Subcommittee might vote on their bill before the Congressional Budget Office has a chance to release its score, so it s not yet clear who all (besides the poor) will be hurt. That would probably be another reason Republicans don t want anyone else seeing this.It s disgusting. It s ridiculous. It s manipulative. And it s classic Republicanism. They ve sunk to a low we didn t think they were capable of.Featured image by Win McNamee via Getty Images