The President, through the federal Office of Personnel Management, has declared that members of Congress and their staffs can receive employer subsidies for exchange-based insurance. Before you nod off, let me say what that means: Congress is effectively exempt from Obamcare.
I was alerted via twitter that Alex Seitz-Wald writing at Salon said the "right was confused by its own lie," and linked to my post back in April explaining the controversy.
Thanks for admitting I was right, guys. It's goofy to claim that because I said Congress was not exempt then, that what has developed now must mean they are still not exempt. I admit that unlikeMichael Cannon, I didn't expect this.
Obamacare is an insidiously complex piece of legislation, with dozens of policy pieces and conflicting goals. All of those pieces were put in place to gain the support of some faction of Congress, even in many cases of a single Senator.
The system of subsidized exchanges was designed to make moderates happy, and to get the insurance lobby to support the bill's passage.
There was the Cornhusker Kickback to get the vote of Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson, the Louisiana Purchase to nab Louisiana's Senator Mary Landrieu, and so on.
Another amendment was offered by Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, to shame Democrats -- which of course proved impossible. S.3174 -- Grassley's "Health Reform Accountability Act," would have required the President and his little helpers, members of Congress, and their staffs to buy insurance on the exchanges if they wanted to have the government pay part of it.
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