Category Archives: Health
ObamaCare Subsidy for Congress
You get an ObamaCare subsidy if you make less than 40% of the poverty level. The poverty level bar is lower for persons of Congress. They make $174,000 and get and still get a subsidy.
When the Affordable Care act was being passed late in the night, Republican Senator Charles Grassley got members of Congress to agree to go to the exchanges, just like everyone else, to buy health care.
Except the political class isn’t like everyone else. They get gold-plated coverage mostly paid for by the government. Grassley’s plan meant they would now be liable for thousands of dollars in out of pocket expenses.
Congress Gets Its Subsidy
Well, the political class takes care of its own and President Obama got the Office of Personal Management to restore the subsidy. You’d think Republicans would raise a stink about this and try to blame Obama for shutting down the government in order to save subsidies for politicians.
But we didn’t hear that so much. The reason, according to Forbes, is that it was Speaker Boehner, working behind the scenes, who pushed Obama to push to restore the subsidies.
Update: Michael Tanner of Cato Institute points out that 780 companies and 451 unions have received exemptions from ObamaCare.
House Republicans offered an amendment to strip out the ObamaCare subsidy for Congress but the Senate refused to bring it to a vote.
Unions and Obamacare
Unions have found that ObamaCare will cost them money and possibly membership.
Charles Lane, in the Washington Post, points out that unions negotiate “Cadillac” health coverage as a primary service to their members. Under the Affordable Care Act those plans get hit with a 40% excise tax.
So, while Big Business gets waived from the “employer mandate”, Big Labor gets nothing.
Unions Left Out
Don’t know why the Republicans haven’t jumped on this, but they should at least be pleased to learn that Obama’s not a socialist.
Government Collapse
The majority of Americans don’t like ObamaCare but they don’t want it to collapse. They don’t want to risk a government shutdown either. Republicans hate it but are divided over risking a shutdown.
Charles Krauthammer, and Brit Hume are among conservatives who thinks it’s unlikely President Obama will sign a bill abolishing ObamaCare. They have a point.
Here’s a column by Daniel Henninger betting that Obamacare will be the straw that breaks the donkey’s back, causing the progressive agenda to collapse. Hmm.
Donkey Business
Here’s a donkey with straw. 
And here’s a donkey up in the air. The straw donkey was probably a better analogy but I thought this one was pretty funny.
Won’t Negotiate
The president won’t negotiate. He issues executive orders. He grants waivers of the employer mandate to big business. He gives a special subsidy to the political class for health care. But he won’t negotiate.
Harry Reid, Obama, and others like to say that ObamaCare is the law of the land and can’t be changed. Isn’t the debt ceiling also the law of the land.? They want that changed.
Negotiate This
I thought negotiation was what politicians do. How is it that when the government shuts down, it’s not the fault of the guy who won’t negotiate.
Political Class and Law
The law doesn’t apply to big business or the political class when it comes to the Affordable Care Act.
The employer mandate requires companies with 50 or more employees to provide comprehensive health care. However, the reporting requirements were just too complex for the government to figure out, so the mandate was delayed for a year.
As a show of good will, while ramming the bill through the Senate the night before Christmas, the politicians agreed to impose Obama Care requirements on themselves. Once they passed the bill and found out what was in it they were shocked to learn it would cost them, and their staffs, huge hunks of cash. No problem. The White House helped tweak the law and our betters were unburdened.
Who’s the Law For?
Now big labor wants Obama to twerk er tweak for them.
Who will the law apply to? Just us serfs.
