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Townhall
Lawmaker, Regulate Thyself
Debra J. Saunders
Aug 18, 2013
"Washington
is an island
surrounded by reality," Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, likes to say.
In
an effort to inject some reality
into the Beltway, Grassley introduced an amendment to the Affordable
Care Act
to require that members of Congress and their staff get their health
care from
the new Obamacare exchanges. "Congress should live under the laws it
creates. That includes Obamacare," Grassley explained.
Enter
Washington reality: The rules
don't apply to the governing class.
Congress
eventually passed the
Grassley amendment, and it was included in the bill President Barack
Obama
signed, but that doesn't mean Washington insiders can't get around it.
There
are two things for the
political class not to like in the Grassley amendment.
To
start, the 11,000 or so members
and Capitol Hill staffers now enjoy Cadillac coverage as participants
in the
Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. The Grassley provision is
supposed
to make that go away and force those individuals to buy their own
coverage
through the less prestigious Obamacare health insurance exchanges.
But
also, the government -- read:
taxpayers -- picks up more than 70 percent of the premiums. There was
no
language in the final Grassley provision to continue the federal
subsidy.
Supporters
have been able to sell
Obamacare coverage as affordable because the government subsidizes
premiums for
some middle-income workers. Senators and representatives make $174,000,
and
their well-compensated staffers can make more than members. Thus, the
Grassley
amendment represents a pay cut for Hill aides.
House
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi
predicted the pay cut would cause savvy Capitol Hill staffers to
stampede toward
the private sector. Politico reported that both Republicans and
Democrats were
looking for a way around the law to prevent what wags had dubbed the
coming
Beltway "brain drain."
After
Obama reportedly told
Democrats behind closed doors that he would help, the Office of
Personnel
Management announced a proposed rule to save Congress from its own
law...
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