On Thursday, the House of Representatives held their vote on the American health care Act (AHCA). The divisive Republican health care plan would dismantle the Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly known as Obamacare, and replace it with the AHCA. The final vote was 217-213 to approve the bill, as it passed by one vote. Not a single Democrat voted in favor of the bill. With health care as a heated topic and polarization between democrats and republicans as high as it has ever been, it is no surprise that emotions ran high. However, the way our representatives in the House acted was beyond emotional, it was just childish.

The Republicans acted like high schoolers

Earlier in the day, the Republicans held a closed-door meeting to try to rally lawmakers behind the AHCA bill. Six weeks ago, the AHCA bill got pulled from the House floor without a vote. This time, Republican leaders were determined to not be embarrassed like that again over their health care plan.. After spending weeks prodding members, the Republicans barely secured enough votes. According to aides at the closed-door meeting, Representative Martha McSally of Arizona, told her colleagues that it was "time to get this (expletive) thing done."

They also blared music at their closed-door meeting to psych themselves up, playing 'Eye of the Tiger' by Survivor and Takin' Care of Business by Bachman-Turner Overdrive.

After the successful vote, Republicans took a bus ride to the White House to celebrate with President Donald Trump.

While the Democrats were no better

Instead of grabbing their chance to come off as the adults in the room compared to the Republicans, the Democrats may have been worse. After the AHCA bill got passed, Democrats chanted, "Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye" at the Republicans.

This is due to the Democrats believing that many Republicans could lose their seats in 2018 by repealing Obamacare, as many Democrats did in 2010 after endorsing it.

Representative Joe Crowley of New York also yelled "you own it now!" from across the aisle as the chant spread. Prior to the vote Speaker of the House Paul Ryan addressed the House in a speech.

His fellow Republicans cheered him on, while the Democrats jeered at him.

Will both parties ever work together?

In recent years the gap between both parties has increased and seems to be getting worse and worse. At this point, it seems hard to believe that our members of Congress will ever actually work together or agree on anything. Hopefully, they can get together and do what is best for America and the American people one day. For now, they seem content to stay divided among party lines and doing what they need to in order to get reelected.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED