I get upset by a lot of what happens in the corridors of power, but two things really irk me.
First, I hate it when the rich and powerful use the coercive power of government to screw ordinary people. That’s one of the reasons I hated the TARP bailout.
Second, I hate the utter hypocrisy of the political elite exempting themselves from the bad policies that get imposed on everyone else. That’s why, for instance, it galls me that the pro-tax bureaucrats at the OECD get tax-free salaries.
Well, now we have a new example of political hypocrisy. Behind closed doors, the crooks in Washington are seeking to exempt themselves from Obamacare.
Here are some of the sordid details reported by Politico.
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 talks — which involve Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), the Obama administration and other top lawmakers — are extraordinarily sensitive, with both sides acutely aware of the potential for political fallout from giving carve-outs from the hugely controversial law to 535 lawmakers and thousands of their aides. Discussions have stretched out for months, sources said. …if Capitol Hill leaders move forward with the plan, they risk being dubbed hypocrites by their political rivals and the American public. By removing themselves from a key Obamacare component, lawmakers and aides would be held to a different standard than the people who put them in office. …There is concern in some quarters that the provision requiring lawmakers and staffers to join the exchanges, if it isn’t revised, could lead to a “brain drain” on Capitol Hill, as several sources close to the talks put it.
Obamacare is a fiscal disaster and a healthcare disaster. Our best bet to get the law repealed is to make sure the politicians and their underlings are subject to all of the law’s bad provisions. Period.
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Actually, it’s already illegal for politicians to exempt themselves from the law UNDER THE US CONSTITUTION. Any law that explicitly exempts any government agent is neither valid nor enforceable on the grounds that it’s unconstitutional.
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Dear host: My earlier post with links explaining how Congress is not exempt now, has not appeared. Any chance of getting it out of moderation?
Here’s the link: http://timpanogos.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/obamacare-making-stuff-up-to-complain-about/
There is this issue: Republicans thought that they could kill the bill by making Congress go a step farther than everyone else. Right now, Congress and staff are covered under a qualifying insurance plan.
GOP required that Congress kill that plan (this is not required of any business or other organization) and make individual purchases from the local insurance exchanges set up in Maryland, Virginia and D.C., for small businesses and individuals who do not have insurance through their employers.
The exchanges have great difficulty dealing with large organizations, and there are great restrictions on how payments can be made. In practice, treating Congress like independent contractors strains the system for small businesses in the area.
The exemption they’re talking about is not exemption from the regulations, but a change so that Congress would be treated as a large employer, and not a small business, in order not to elbow out of the way other small businesses in the area.
CATO, of course, thinks insurance is a bad idea for the non-rich. Their opposition isn’t based in equality of treatment for people, but instead on trying to preserve benefits for the rich at the expense of the poor.
You can pull your head out of the sand now, duckyack.
No … and hell no! Exempting themselves from Obamacare removes Lawmakers from “of the people, by the people and for the people.” They are not Earls and we are not their subjects … we pay their salaries! “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.”
In addition to exempting themselves from this worthless healthcare legislation, were you also aware that while we were sleeping, they neutered the laws they had just passed that prevented them from participating in insider trading? I thought for sure you would be all over that.
[…] does anyone really care? Panic on Capitol Hill As usual, Dan Mitchell, of CATO, says it best. Should Politicians Be Allowed to Exempt Themselves and their Staff from Obamacare? April 25, 2013 by Dan Mitchell I get upset by a lot of what happens in the corridors of power, […]
Amen.
Reblogged this on This Got My Attention and commented:
Rank hypocrisy! The politicians who forced Obamacare on us now want to exempt themselves from it.
is this a trick question?
Ezra Klein attempts to backfill here:
Back during the Affordable Care Act negotiations, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) proposed an amendment forcing all members of Congress and all of their staffs to enter the exchanges. The purpose of the amendment was to embarrass the Democrats. But in a bit of jujitsu of which they were inordinately proud, Democrats instead embraced the amendment and added it to the law.
…
Let’s stop for a moment here and explain why this is unusual. Large employers — defined in the law as employers with more than 100 employees — aren’t allowed onto the insurance exchanges until 2017, and only then if a state makes an affirmative decision to let them in.
But the federal government is the largest employer in the country. So Grassley’s amendment means that the largest employer in the country is required to put some of its employees — the ones working for Congress — on the exchanges. But the exchanges don’t have any procedures for handling premium contributions for large employers.
That’s where the problem comes in. This was an offhand amendment that was supposed to be rejected. It’s not clear that the federal government has the authority to pay for congressional staffers on the exchanges, the way it pays for them now in the federal benefits program. That could lead to a lot of staffers quitting Congress because they can’t afford to shoulder 100 percent of their premiums.
So, in other words, because it would end up being EXPENSIVE, we can’t have Congressional aides being subject to it — that would be inhumane!
Klein really is a piece of work sometimes, but nowhere more than on the subject of health care. His artless lying about double counting was the kind of thing only Democrats could swallow, but swallow it they did.
[…] Should Politicians Be Allowed to Exempt Themselves and their Staff from Obamacare? […]
Impeach obama and all the crooks in office
Yet various levels of Obama’s administration have purchased millions of hollow-point bullets for domestic use. The SSA and Homeland Security have ordered over 1.2 billion rounds – 1,200,000,000 bullets.
Hollow-points are useless for their ostensible purpose of target practice, and are illegal as a war crime since they cause gaping wounds and unnecessary suffering. See more in this article about the UN Arms Trade Treaty…
But, it’s Boehner and the Republicans who want to be exempted . . .
This may be irony and I am dense, but it’s the lot of them, the “ruling class”, that does not wish to be bound by the burdens they would inflict on the rest of us. I seem to remember a book that talks about people like that.
Nah, the book was bogus, the government is well intentioned and the entire country is going to need to switch to decaf to get through a peaceful sleep on what is coming.
They should HAVE to follow the same laws and rules they make for us
Not no, but HELL NO, to federal employees and politicians, on up to and including the president, should be allowed to exempt themselves from Obamacare! I am so sick and tired of this communist usurper and his takeover of what was still a fine place to be until he came along. The Bushes were New World Order globalists, but they were only after more wealth. This one is all about an abyss of power. He wants to be king!
Never in my long life have I witnessed so much destruction, in so short a time, of our Constitution. The total damage done by this particular sonofabitch and his gang of outlaws will take decades to repair if we even get the chance. I have never been a person who is easy to anger, and I’ve always been an optimist, yet in the last six months I’ve remained at the boiling point and continue to be enraged by what is happening in Washington. There has always been corrupt individuals, but prior to this group of devils, those crook at least tried to hide their disdain for the average American. These thugs are amoral and without conscience, and they would sooner spit in our eye than deal with us fairly. In fact, they won’t even acknowledge us, much less take the time to get close enough to spit.
And Ed Darrell, no one here is claiming that it’s fine for Republicans to exempt themselves, so you are on the wrong pestering pole. I should think, by now, you ought to have come to your senses. But it doesn’t appear to be the case. I often get a migraine trying to understand why some people bury their head in the sand. Why they prefer lies to truth–oh, wait just a second here–lies are so much more pretty and warm.
Reblogged this on Tin Foil Hat Book Club and commented:
The hypocrisy meter is pegged.
President Obama does play the part hypocrite quite often.
Reblogged this on Gds44's Blog.
But, it’s Boehner and the Republicans who want to be exempted . . .
Well said. I can’t come up with enough negative things to say about politicians who except themselves from regulations that the rest of us are stuck with.
New amendment to the constitution should make it illegal for lawmakers to exempt themselves from the law. Federalist 55 is playing itself out in all its gory details.