A GOP congressman used an extended goat metaphor to critique Obamacare. We illustrated it.

Rep. Drew Ferguson (R-GA) just used a metaphor to describe Obamacare: a rogue goat.

Ferguson went on at length on the House floor about this goat, telling a story about what the goat’s been up to for the past six years. It's kind of hard to sort out what’s what, so we decided to illustrate the metaphor to see if we can get this straight.

"A little over six years ago, I lived in a pretty decent house."

"And one day I heard a knock on the door."

"And before I knew it, my colleagues from the other side of the aisle had let a goat loose in my house."

“Now for six years, that goat has been messin’ in and destroying my house.”

“I want to renovate my house…”

“...but before I can, I have to get the goat out of the house before it can do any more damage.”

“It makes no sense to start fixing up my house before we get the goat out. Voting for the fiscal year ’17 budget resolution gets this goat out of my house.”

“Mr. Speaker, make no mistake, we must renovate our house. We must undo the Affordable Care Act.”

My colleagues have tried to decipher this message as well, but here’s about as far as I got:

The goat is almost certainly Obamacare. Everything else is unclear.

What Ferguson is referring to is a budget resolution that, if passed in the House, would direct committees that oversee Obamacare to cut portions of the law. The Senate already passed the resolution. (Here’s a cartoon to explain that process.)

For all of the goat’s problems, Republicans have yet to come up with a replacement for it. The old goat lowered uninsured rates to an all-time low. What the new one will do is just a guess.

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