In Which We Live

This is the country in which we are all currently living: The Central Budget Office tells us that fourteen million people will lose health care in the next year under the new and improved Health Care Act. You know, the one that replaced Obamacare. By 2026, twenty-four more million would be uninsured compared to the old school Affordable Care Act. Another difference? This one is called the "American Health Care Act." This might explain why it isn't as affordable. Or helpful. Premiums would go down for younger Americans, but older Americans would pay more. This is the country in which we are all currently living. 
What have you got to say for yourself, Paul Ryan? “This report confirms that the American Health Care Act will lower premiums and improve access to quality, affordable care. CBO also finds that this legislation will provide massive tax relief, dramatically reduce the deficit, and make the most fundamental entitlement reform in more than a generation.” If you're one of those thirty-eight million Americans who will be left out of this reform, you might feel different about the term "entitlement." Access to affordable health care now falls under "entitlement?"
Then there's the looming specter of Steve King. Much scarier than his horror story generator for whom he may or may not have been named, Steve (not Stephen) is a Republican congressman from Iowa whose most recent entry into the "did he really just say that" sweepstakes was “We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies.” Okay. Full disclosure: he didn't say it. He tweeted it. Sound familiar? Sound distasteful? Sound hateful? Maybe he could explain still further. “I’ve said to them, ‘You cannot rebuild your civilization with somebody else’s babies. You’ve got to keep your birth rate up and … you need to teach your children your values and in doing so, then you can grow your population and you can strengthen your culture, you can strengthen your way of life.’ And that’s not happening in any of the Western European countries.” This makes sense coming from the mouth that gave us the 2013 hit, saying that for every child of people who immigrated illegally to the U.S. “who’s a valedictorian, there’s another hundred out there who weigh a hundred thirty pounds and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling seventy-five pounds of marijuana across the desert.” Anything you'd like to add, Representative King? “It’s not about race. It’s never been about race, and in fact, the struggles across this planet, we describe them as race, they’re not race — they’re culture-based. It’s the clash of cultures, not the race.”
Welcome to the country in which we live, 2017. Sleep tight. 
Or wake up.
Now.