And I am hoping it is going to cost them dearly – and not just as another deduction from their Federal tax paid payroll checks. Like many Conservatives, my heart dropped when the Supremes declared it Constitutional – being penalized for simply being an American citizen that breathes if you decide to do “nothing”? A Collectivists’ wet dream but in my mind, it shattered the Founders’ vision of a limited Government. However, being a 3,000 page of a bill and now up to 20,000 pages of regulations (with more yet to come) to implement, States refusing to set up their own Exchanges and blowing out their budgets by expanding Medicare, are we starting to see panic as the October implementation date coming up? And with this, are we seeing the first moments of the political equivalent of “insider trading”?
Or are we seeing the first screaming of those closest to an explosion starting to run to save their hides?
“I have no problems with Congress being under the same guidelines,” Burr told Politico. “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.”
That would be US Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) over at The Corner and I think that SHOULD be the line that the Republicans should take – but will they cave? At Politico (2 days ago):
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.
…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.
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.
My, such concern for the folks that work for our elected leaders, concerned that the law that most of Democrats helped to craft (and then voted for it – with NO Republicans, I remind you, voting for it in either the House or Senate)! But yet again, I draw your attention to what Senator Burr said, above.
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.”
Indeed – no wonder why the “Leadership” is trying to “fix” this for the DC minions in their offices. Yes, that example is HARSH – and I can see the legitimate concern. But in that entire article, I saw NO references to that same impact on regular Americans – only the political ramifications when Americans hearing that their Elites were quite happy in exempting themselves from an intrusive and now, very expensive Government mandate from on high.
Yeah, that’s the ticket!
Burr added: “And that makes up probably about 30 percent of the folks that work on the Senate side. Probably a larger portion on the House side. It would drastically change whether kids would have the ability to come up here out of college.”
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.”
Way back when, Obamacare was supposed to lead to an eternal Democrat majority (according to the Smart Set) – who could hate a health system that was going to break the true meaning of “healthcare insurance” by making it a mere “somebody else is paying for me” by pandering to the 47% who like “free stuff”.
Burr is right – leaders that exempt themselves from the effects of laws they place on others are not Leaders at all. That would include my Senior Senator Jeanne Shaheen that was at the front of flustercluck of a bill (and that was AFTER she ruined the health insurance climate here in NH with her SB711 that effectly reduced the number of competing companies from over a dozen to two). It is becoming clear that the savior from Obamacare’s ill effects may well be the bill itself and the Keystone Kops implementation of it. Hubris was in thinking that Democrats (or anyone) could effectively nationalize something as big as this marketplace was possible in the way that they said they could.
The news coming out now is that HHS is almost in panic mode – and deadlines are already being missed, the law is already subverted by opposing regs (e.g., the IRS has already stated that it can give out tax credits for deals through the Federally run exhanges – even as that is OPPOSITE to what the plain law actually states), and the premium prices are already starting to skyrocket.
And the exact people that this law was supposed to help is financially killing them as employers are dynamically reacting (oh goodness – people change their behaviors??) to the fiat from these Most Elite Smarty Pants that “full time” is now 30 hours / week. So, just getting by? Not fer long, dudes and dudettes! Obama and the Dems made a political decision to delay these “bad parts” until after the Prez elections – Obama made sure that he was going to save his own election bacon. And now, the 2014 horizon is coming just as the costs and extreme paperwork tidal waves are starting to crash.
May you Democrats receive EVERYthing you so richly deserve.
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Now, since that came out and folks started to hear about this double-cross of the American people, these “Leaders” have walked it back; “hoisted by their own petard” may well describe it. But that also brings to the fore that other phrase “Ever Vigilant” – that we, the Citizens, must always be wary of those we elect to this overgrown Leviathan of the Government are doing to us under the rubric “for us”.
But the fact that someone truly believed that they had the ability and the chance to pull this off should be making us feel both scared and angry – that they’d do it behind our backs and angry that they’d believe
