Making America Great(er) 6 msfocusmagazine.org One day in the future, an enterprising producer may develop a show for Broadway with a plot covering the time span from last year’s presidential campaign outcome to the early months of the new administration. Should this come to pass, tickets may be in greater demand than Hamilton is today. The level of daily drama and controversy coming out of Washington, D.C., is providing an endless stream of fodder for budding playwrights. Among these recent events has been the failed attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and replace it with the (seven-years-in-the-making)American Health CareAct (AHCA). As of the time we went to press, no alternative had been intoduced. The opposition to the AHCA crossed party lines as it became apparent that various provisions would directly or indirectly be detrimental to many Americans regardless of whether they obtained insurance through the marketplace, their employers, Medicare or Medicaid. We applaud those who chose to hold out for a better option for their constituents. But noteworthy in all this was the fact that among those who would have voted against the AHCA was a group of legislators who opposed it on the grounds that it did not cut nearly enough. That rationale is especially disturbing to many Americans and begs the following questions: What kind of a nation have we become? Where do we go from here? Perhaps if we peer into our not-too-distant history, we may gain some insight. Jules Kuperberg Co-Executive Director Alan R. Segaloff Co-Executive Director