Posted on 09/23/2013 2:01:31 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
While Ted Cruz and Mike Lee consider their next steps procedurally in the Senate, here’s Rand Paul via Mediaite already preparing Plan B for if/when the “defund” strategy fizzles.
Remember how, a few months ago, members of Congress were panicked that their staffers would start quitting en masse this fall thanks to an O-Care rule that Chuck Grassley inserted into the final bill in 2010? The rule required congressional workers to drop their federally subsidized health-care coverage and fend for themselves on ObamaCare’s exchanges just like the rest of the rabble out there. Many staffers wouldn’t be able to afford the loss of subsidies, though; the only way out for some would be to quit and head to K Street or beyond to make a living.
Our leader, knowing that he could ill afford any more discontent on the Hill over his pet boondoggle and confident that he can suspend or ignore whichever ObamaCare provisions he chooses, got the Office of Personnel and Management to issue a new regulation stating that subsidies would continue for federal staffers even after they bought a new health-care plan on the exchange. Crisis averted!
Or is it? Here’s Paul suggesting that, in lieu of defunding, one of the things the GOP could insist on in a compromise is making sure all federal employees have to live with O-Care, warts and all. David Vitter introduced a similar bill last week; via David Freddoso, watch Nebraska Senate candidate Ben Sasse below make the same argument in his new ad. The issue may be too small-ball for most defunders’ liking given their ambitions to stop the entire law cold (which won’t happen anyway), but the politics of it would be excruciating for Democrats.
Either they agree to the Vitter/Paul amendment and hope that the resulting brain drain among their staffers isn’t too much of a political and logistical nightmare for the Hill’s O-Care supporters, or they oppose it and try to explain to the public why the thought of having to cope with Obama’s big legislative “achievement” without taxpayer subsidies is horrifying. The only hitch here: Can Vitter/Paul get majority support among Republicans? They’re worried about the brain drain too. As much as they’d love to make Democrats squirm by backing this, some of them also petitioned Obama to keep the subsidies flowing to staffers earlier this year. I don’t know if this will get anti-ObamaCare forces any closer to 60 votes than the “defund” bill will.
I don’t think it will work. Obama will merely raise their salary’s to include the cost of their health care.
Hope I’m wrong!
RE: “Many staffers wouldn’t be able to afford the loss of subsidies,”
I hasten to remind everyone of two things:
1) Obamacare now works on an “honor” system. They won;t check whether you are eligible for subsidies or not.
2) Their website ( the part that calculates the subsidies you are eligible for ) is NOT READY and still filled with bugs.
So, in effect, they can be eligible for subsidies if they simply say so.
Screw that. I’m in FEHBP. Want no part of obammycare.
Hell no! Obamacare must be defunded and repealed, otherwise we lose our constitutional republic. Obamacare sets the supreme court precedent that there are no constitutional limits on government and no constitutionally guaranteed and protected individual right that cannot be violated by government decree.
Obamacare, if allowed to proceed by we the people, effectively ends our constitutional republic.
I’d go for this compromise. Cancel all of the exemptions and grant no more. Cancel all government and government retiree polices and turn them over to Obamacare.
Watch how quickly Obamacare goes away.
Question: If you are on Medicare, do you still have to sign up for Obamacare?
Force everyone into it with no chance of them getting out.
This is especially true of the scumbag staffers who really run the show in DC.
BUT all Federal Employees (Judges, Congress, Exec. Branch) should have to go through the exchanges for their coverage vs. having a number of private insurance options. Get this little amendment passed and Obamacare will be dead by legislation within 6 months.
Dead, dead, dead.
Still have obamacare...this wont work.
Ø'Caire must be sliced, diced, chopped in tiny bits, whacked, hacked, and shredded to molecular smithereens. So as to ensure it never sees the light of day ever again, it must be pulverized and ground with a mortar and pestle. Consider preventing that cartoon vision of an enemy ground to pieces, but then its ooze sliming together to create a new entity only worse.... NEVER let that happen!
Hey, if it’s the “law of the land” then everyone should be subject to it.
NO COMPROMISE ever, let Reid and Obama shut the government down.
Defunding Obamacare is a Congressional action.
Forcing EVERYONE on Obamacare is a Judicial action.
Do both.
Exactly.
What is FEHBP? Sorry, I’m out of the loop.
Agree. Or they’ll find some way to exempt the “beautiful people” after the fact. The only acceptable path is to defund this train wreck before it sinks its deadly tentacles further into our economy. Maybe this weak tactic is designed to provide cover for the Rinos so that when they cave, they can offer the allusion that they at least were able to at extract a (fake) pound of flesh from our political opponents.
The bottom line is that nothing less than starving the Obamacare monstrosity by defunding it is acceptable. Insisting that federal employees enroll doesn’t get rid of it so as a secondary tactic it makes little sense.
Heck yeah!
Further, cut the pensions of congress people.
Here in Illinois you get full pension after 1 term, and full medical coverage for life for you and your family.
Plus you get to nominate 2 people each year for a full ride to any military academy and 10 people each year for a full ride to any Illinois University.
Cut that sh*t out. It’s doled out to families and friends.
I think each congressperson in every state gets this perk, I could be wrong.
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