While this shouldn’t come as a shock to most of you, your elected representatives (at least federally, for those of us here in the Land of the Free™) do not care about your well-being. Sure, for a few months, maybe even a year, when they’re up for re-election, your local congressman will bombard the airwaves with ads, send out legions of unpaid volunteers, and even hold the occasional town-hall rally, perpetuating the illusion that they’re up in Washington fighting the good fight just for you.

But the truth is that they care solely about the conservation, consolidation, and expansion of their own power. This is not a liberal or conservative issue, and nor is it limited to Republicans, Democrats, New Black Panther gender-neutral gun rights activists… or anybody else. One need only study–very briefly, I might add–the concepts and practices behind gerrymandering, the lobbying industry, super PACs, and campaign finance law, among others.

Just over a month ago, in fact, our country’s two major parties (and associated PACs) spent over $40 million combined on the special election in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District. For the uninformed, the victor, Republican Karen Handel, replaced recently-appointed Trump cabinet member Tom Price (now Secretary of Health and Human Services), and will only serve until November 2018. To recap, the parties that control 98% of the Senate and 100% of the House of Representatives spent $40 million (that’s a 4 with seven zeroes behind it) on a seat that will be up for re-election in less than 18 months.

Now, Congress’ profligate spending and disdain for the electorate is not uncommon knowledge. It also is not much of a stretch to say that it was a major factor in the election of Washington Outsider™ Donald Trump as President in 2016. What’s alarming, however, is the cognitive dissonance exhibited by the American people in recognizing and discussing these issues. Congress itself has an approval rating hovering around an abysmal 15-20%; however the approval rating for one’s own legislators is more than double that, reaching nearly 50% in 2013, the most recent year such numbers were available. In the same vein, a more recent study shows that while 78% and 52% of Americans see Congress as out of touch and corrupt, respectively, only 48% and 32% of Americans would say the same of their own representatives. This being the case, the common refrain of “vote the bums out!” seems much more toothless than I imagine many would prefer to believe.

This is all only preface, however, to the raison d’etre of this piece. Does the government hate you? Fortunately for you, dear reader, if you’re young, moderately well-off financially, and healthy, it’s this writer’s opinion that no, they don’t hate you, much less want you dead. Unfortunately, however, this sentiment has much more in common with your own feelings towards a fruit fly or a cockroach. You, like most flies, are an inconvenience to be tolerated. If you keep to yourself and avoid contaminating their proverbial (and your literal) bread and butter, you should be fine. If you become an inconvenience, however–by, say organizing, protesting, or civilly disobeying them… well, how do you deal with unwanted arthropods?

If you’re anything like me, you smash them. Or, you could go the Orin Incandenza route (I’ve been itching to include an Infinite Jest reference… sue me), and just suffocate them.

Regardless, you deal with them, usually by extermination. Thankfully, we’ve not yet reached that point, and so far need only fear being marginalized, discredited, and personally or professionally ruined. If you happen to be poor, physically unwell, or elderly, though… well, watch out.

For the past seven years, since the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act (that’s Obamacare, y’all), Republicans at all levels of government have campaigned nearly non-stop for its repeal, promising that they could do better… if only they controlled all three branches of government.

Vegetables are cheaper than health insurance.

For the past six months, since Trump’s inauguration, they have had this control, and as of Tuesday July 25, the best they’ve been able to do is begin debate on what amounts to a partial repeal. Now, I will admit I am not the biggest fan of the ACA (full disclosure: I favor either a universal single-payer system, or a truly free-market [i.e. no regulations on over state-line competition/commerce, etc.] system…radical either way, I know), but even the staunchest opponent has to admit that somewhere upwards of 25 million previously uninsured Americans now have insurance. The most recent Republican plan, which failed to pass the Senate, would have stripped somewhere around 22 million of these citizens of that coverage. This itself is abhorrent; yet what is most appalling is the fact that at no time in their eight years of campaigning and complaining to repeal and replace™ the ACA did the Republicans come up with any sort of plan that even their own 52 senators could agree on. In eight goddamn years (excusez mon francais) of nearly non-stop bitching, the Republicans accomplished nothing but increasing their numbers in Congress.

And therein lies the crux of this piece. On an issue as important as our country’s healthcare system, the party that has controlled both Houses of Congress since 2010, and all three (well, depending on your view of certain Supreme Court Justices, though the majority have indeed been appointed by Republican Presidents) branches of Government since January of this year does not have a plan. These are the same people who oversaw a congressional hearing on steroids in baseball…let that sink in.

This is not steroids in baseball, nor rezoning, nor even taxes; this is, for many Americans, life and death. And yet, here we are, good citizens of The Land of the Free™, sitting in wait while a group of power- and money-hungry bumbling fools decide whether or not we’ll be financially ruined by a health crisis. I don’t know about you, but I myself find this disconcerting, to say the least. Would that I could offer a better piece of advice, but for now, all I have is, “eat your vegetables.”