When Obama signed the health care bill, he knew he wasn’t doing anything to hurt his health care. Or Joe Biden’s. Or Speaker Pelosi’s.
They don’t have to participate in the boondoggle they put the rest of us in the middle of.
Chuck Grassley wants to change that:
Before Grassley got the Congressional Accountability Act enacted in 1995, the folks on Capitol Hill routinely exempted themselves from bills that applied to every other American.
Now they’ve done something similar when it comes to health care.
It’s not entirely clear if those left out of the bill will enjoy a better health-care deal than the rest of the American people: Congress is still “fixing” the bill — and many of its programs and costs won’t be implemented for years.
But the folks now covered under the federal employees’ health plan know what they’re getting — and won’t face any of the uncertainties and unknowns that come with an entirely new program that is heavily regulated by Washington.
Yet even if the differences turn out to be insignificant, there’s an important principle involved.
As Grassley puts it: “It’s only fair that top administration officials, who fought so hard for passage of this health-care overhaul, experience it themselves.”
Precisely.
Grassley has offered an amendment “that would require the president, vice-president, members of Congress, political appointees and congressional staff to get their federal health benefits through the soon-to-be-created health insurance exchanges.”
Chuck Grassley. Hero.
If they refuse to pass this, the Democrats are writing the Republican campaign commercials for this fall.
