Let me start by saying I don’t really like the show, but I caught “Crossfire” tonight where Bernie Sanders and Senator David Vitter were talking Obamacare. In a strange turnaround, it was the more liberal participants, Senator Sanders and host Van Jones who came across as out of touch (in the case of Senator Sanders) and curiously “crazy,” (more typically the word reserved for Republicans these days) for Mr. Van Jones.
The discussion was one where Mr. Vitter was arguing that lawmakers and their staffs should participate in Obamacare, living with the law they’re making everyone else live with. Of course, I would go further, including all Federal employees whose benefits packages and frequently salaries are far superior to an average American’s and have been for many years, making civil “service,” among the best employment around for a long time.
Mr. Sanders used dated concepts of comparing the Federal government to any other “employer” who should contribute generously to the benefits of its workers. Nice try, except, oh yeah, it’s no longer true. He even brought up IBM as an example, the company that recently threw its retirees into a private “exchange” to save money. He was that out of touch.
Van Jones went even further down “crazy” lane, arguing, “What about the children?” in regards to making federal workers use Obamacare which apparently is good enough for the rest of the country.
He actually made some strained argument about how can we disappoint children who want to come to work for the government because they care about their nation and then say there won’t be benefits? Yeah, it was that bad. Regarding government jobs, see first paragraph above, lots of people would be willing to take them. Not only out of touch, but throwing in “the children,” the potential Washington workers as starry-eyed patriots was a bit much.
Didn’t hear him worrying about the children regarding the cuts to SNAP, food assistance for the children, only the cushy government employees with their rich benefits packages seemed to worry the host. In all fairness only saw the show for a few minutes, so maybe he did address the disgrace of cutting food assistance.)
Surprisingly, the voice of educated reason was Senator David Vitter from Louisiana. I don’t know whether he’s been one of the “crazy” Republicans in the past, but I can tell you that he was well spoken and well prepared in his discussion of Obamacare. He emphasized that federal lawmakers and their staffs (as I said, I go further, cut the superior benefits for all government employees) should live by the laws they make for others.
Van Jones argued repeatedly against such an approach with the imaginary case of a $30,000 a year staff employee, which Mr. Vitter wisely suggested would make that person eligible for rebates under Obamacare using the exchange, just like other $30,000-a-year employees.
