In a decision by the Office of Personnel Management and pushed for and Ok’d by the ‘anointed one’ himself, the 535 members of the Senate and House along with thousands of government agency staff will NOT lose the federal contribution toward their health insurance they currently receive.
Oh the hypocrisy of it all as what’s good for the goose (‘We the People’) is most assuredly NOT good for the gander (the do-nothings in Congress).
When Congress passed the dreaded ObamaCare in 2010…passing it BEFORE they even read it…there was an amendment requiring that said lawmakers and their staff buy health insurance through the online exchanges that the law had created (just like we have to). This would mean they would lose the coverage they had under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. But when they realized what they lost, and that the ObamaCare bill they passed contained NO language that allowed their federal contributions to continue as before, they started whining and stamping their feet like little children. And of course they would for it suddenly hit them that their original policies had the government covering about 75% of their healthcare premium costs, and that had now gone bye-bye.
In other words the ‘fat cats’ in Congress, those who make $174,000+ per year, before had to only pay 25% on their own…the government picked up the rest…and by hook or crook they were going to make sure it stayed that way. And of course Obama went to bat for them on this as he needs them happy and content for he can only play the race card to keep them in line for only so long.
Something is very, very wrong with this picture I’d say. NO wonder all stops…all sorts of vile underhanded tactics are pulled out of the proverbial hat to win a Congressional seat…the benefits are just too good…too good for those who sit back and do NOTHING of substance.
And wouldn’t it be nice if ‘We the People’ were granted the same relief from rising health insurance costs that the members of Congress have granted themselves (better yet repeal the whole damn thing and be done with it for everyone)…and shouldn’t those in Congress…those who were elected to work for ‘We the People’ NOT for their own self-interests…shouldn’t they have to live under and abide by the same laws we do. Apparently this isn’t so, and this is but one reason why ‘We the People’ despise Congress like we do.
And beyond the opting out of certain areas of ObamaCare there are other provisions in some other federal laws that Congress is exempt from that we just regular American citizens are NOT…such as…
- The Freedom of Information Act
- Investigatory subpoenas to obtain information for safety and health probes
- Protections against retaliation for whistleblowers
- Having to post notices of worker rights in offices
- Prosecution for retaliating against employees who report safety and health hazards
- Having to train employees about workplace rights and legal remedies
- Record-keeping requirements for workplace injuries and illnesses
And while our Founding Fathers worried that presidents might try to bully House or Senate members by threatening to arrest them on made-up charges (too bad they didn’t account for a possibility like Barack HUSSEIN Obama and his so-called phony scandals), they decided to preserve the separation of executive and legislative powers and make sure the executive branch did not abuse its own authority to try to influence votes in Congress. So they decided that by giving those elected to office a certain amount of immunity in specific areas they hoped to assure that our government ran smoothly.
This was expressed in Article 1, Section 6 which states, “They (Congress) shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.”
But those exemptions and those alone should be the only ones made because it’s in our Constitution. All others, and I mean ALL other exemptions of any kind awarded Congress, especially the newest one concerning ObamaCare (which Congress should have read BEFORE they voted on it in the middle of the night), should be negated immediately as being counterproductive to NOT only the law of our land as laid down in the Constitution, but also to the will and well-being of ‘We the People’ as well.
http://thepatriotfactor.blogspot.com/2013/08/o-p-ed-c.html
