Obamacare so great, Congress wants exemption from it

This came out last week so I’m a bit late on it. It seems that secret talks between the house and senate took place to exempt Congress and their aids from it. The reason? They like their taxpayer gold/platinum/diamond plans and have no interested in suffering with the “Little People.”

Needless to say, they aren’t to happy this all leaked out and are rapidly denying they are looking to exempt themselves. By the way, would you be interested in this nice bridge I have for sale? Here are some of the details from 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.

Once again, we see what an absolute sleazeball John Boehner is. We already knew that Reid was a corrupt little twerp of course. These scum rammed this abortion down our throats then have the nerve to try and exempt themselves. Further, these craven cowards don’t even have the guts to face the people when they spit in our eye and stab us in the back. Of course, the whole idea was to get everyone on board. The plan was to sneak this through, knowing their pals in the Obama Steno Pool would cover for them.

A source close to the talks says: “Everyone has to hold hands on this and jump, or nothing is going to get done.”

Ahh yes, the old “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately ((Benjamin Franklin Quote)).” meme. Frankly they can all hang together. It’s more efficient.

Yet 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.

And this would be different from every other law they ram down our throats?

Democrats, in particular, would take a public hammering as the traditional boosters of Obamacare.

Gee, ya think? After all, they passed this with not one single Republican vote. They own it, it’s all theirs.

Republicans would undoubtedly attempt to shred them over any attempt to escape coverage by it, unless Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) give Democrats cover by backing it.

And those two fools would have done it too. Now why did this come up in the first place?

The problem stems from whether members and aides set to enter the exchanges would have their health insurance premiums subsidized by their employer — in this case, the federal government. If not, aides and lawmakers in both parties fear that staffers — especially low-paid junior aides — could be hit with thousands of dollars in new health care costs, prompting them to seek jobs elsewhere. Older, more senior staffers could also retire or jump to the private sector rather than face a big financial penalty.

Hate to break to those staffers, but us regular folks, you know, the scum of the earth as you consider anyone in flyover country, is going to get slammed even in the “Dreaded Private Sector.”

Plus, lawmakers — especially those with long careers in public service and smaller bank accounts — are also concerned about the hit to their own wall

GOOD! Serves those scummy bastards right!

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) is worried about the provision. The No. 2 House Democrat has personally raised the issue with Boehner and other party leaders, sources said.

“Mr. Hoyer is looking at this policy, like all other policies in the Affordable Care Act, to ensure they’re being implemented in a way that’s workable for everyone, including members and staff,” said Katie Grant, Hoyer’s communications director.

Workable for Hoyer, who was instrumental in passing this load of manure, is to make sure all the “Special people who slave away in Washington” aren’t affected by it. Heaven help them if they seek out medical care and the Obama Death Panel decides that Senator Foghorn or Representative Shmedlip isn’t worth the cost of treating. (Granted, as far as I’m concerned, most of the members of congress aren’t worth saving)

Several proposals have been submitted to the Office of Personnel Management, which will administer the benefits. One proposal exempts lawmakers and aides; the other exempts aides alone.

Hey! How about the rest of us? Oh yeah, right. All we do is send money to Washington so you can jet around the world ((Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) Round-the-World Trip Cost Taxpayers $23K)).

Surprisingly, not all members of the Congressional Moonbat Caucus are on board with this.

However, the idea of exempting lawmakers and aides from the exchanges has its detractors, including Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), a key Obamacare architect. Waxman thinks there is confusion about the content of the law. The Affordable Care Act, he said, mandates that the federal government will still subsidize and provide health plans obtained in the exchange. There will be no additional cost to lawmakers and Hill aides, he contends.

Of course not! They will simply steal it from the Taxpayers.

“I think the law is pretty clear,” Waxman told POLITICO. “Members and their staffs should get their health insurance through the exchange; the federal government will offer them health insurance coverage that they obtained through the exchanges because we want to get the same health care coverage everybody else has available to them.”

Oh, so they’re all going to get crap just like the rest of us?

Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) said if OPM decides that the federal government doesn’t pick up “the 75 percent that they have been, then put yourself in the position of a lot of entry-level staff people who make $25,000 a year, and all of a sudden, they have a $7,000 a year health care tab? That would be devastating.”

So what? That’s exactly what’s going to happen to the rest of us.

Yet Burr, a vocal Obamacare opponent, is also flat-out opposed to exempting Congress from the exchange provision.

“I have no problems with Congress being under the same guidelines,” Burr said. “I think if this is going to be a disaster — which I think it’s going to be — we ought to enjoy it together with our constituents.”

Now that was refreshing. A member of Congress saying they need to get it in the neck, just like their constituents? Who would have thought?

The developing narrative is potentially brutal for congressional Democrats and the White House. The health care law, controversial since it was passed in 2010, has been a target of the right and, increasingly, the left. There are concerns about its cost, implementation and impact on small businesses. If the two sides agree on a fix, leadership is discussing attaching it to a must-pass bill, like the government-funding resolution or legislation to hike the nation’s debt limit.

How about the fact that the majority of the people didn’t want it in the first place and even more hate it now?

The secret talks about exempting Capitol Hill hands from the exchanges has the potential to be even more politically risky. During the 2009-10 battle over what’s now dubbed Obamacare, Republicans insisted that Capitol Hill hands must have the same health care as the rest of the American people.

That was then, this is now. When this disaster was pushed through, Bella Pelosi was speaker. Now it’s Crybaby Boehner and he has a history of protecting his privileges. I have no doubt that if he could have sneaked this through, he would have. However, since it leaked out, he has been in full scale back pedaling and denials. No one believes him.

This is simply another reason why the Federal Government in general and the Congress in particular are distrusted and despised. As Emperor Misha I of the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler repeatedly remarks:

“Rope, Tree, Politician. Some assembly required.”

Thatisall

~The Angry Webmaster~

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