A brouhaha has erupted over a Politico news story entitled, “Lawmakers, aides may get Obamacare exemption.”
“Congressional leaders in both parties are engaged in high-level, confidential talks about exempting lawmakers and Capitol Hill aides from the insurance exchanges they are mandated to join as part of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, sources in both parties said,” the article begins.
Twitter is ablaze with outrage, including my own: “If Congresspersons vote to exempt themselves from #ObamaCare, they will be looking for new jobs after 2014.”
Ezra Klein entitles his Washington Post blog post: “No, Congress isn’t trying to exempt itself from Obamacare,” arguing that it is merely trying to fix a drafting error in ObamaCare that could mean the federal government couldn’t contribute to the cost of health insurance for Members of Congress and their staffers.
Small and medium-sized businesses are trying desperately to figure out how to survive under ObamaCare. ANY deal that Congress, or the Office of Personnel Management as its agent, would concoct to protect Congress from this monstrous law would be an absolute political disaster. Everyone would be punished by the voters in 2014.
Private businesses need to figure out how to deal with it and so should Congress. The American people will ignore the nuance of the particular problem that Congress created for itself “in which the federal government can’t make its normal contribution to the insurance premiums of congressional staffers,” according to Ezra Klein. There are a lot of mistakes and “drafting errors” in this law. Too bad. Live with it.
While I know this would be a hardship for the hardworking staff on Capitol Hill, they’d be more likely to lose their jobs as the voters toss out members who vote for this next November.
The more people find out about this law and its personal effect on them, the more they will demand repeal.
Speaker Boehner has Tweeted: “The fact that Dem leaders want to opt themselves out of ObamaCare shows Sen Baucus isn’t only one who realizes it’s a #trainwreck.”
And “We’re not sneaking any language into bills to solve Dems’ #hcr problem. The solution to this & other ObamaCare nightmares is #fullrepeal.”
Stay tuned…