I’ll state outright, I’ve not followed Senator David Vitter of Louisiana, but his hopes of getting rid of healthcare subsidies taxpayer-funded for lawmakers and staffers is definitely worth a look, even if you could care less about him to see other lawmaker’s responses to his proposal which perhaps will inform your vote in your own state.
Senator Vitter wants to get rid of the lawmaker/staffer Obamacare exemption that allows lawmakers to avoid the reality of Obamacare. Still unsure of whether to call it an exemption since it’s more about another law providing a choice for lawmakers outside of the system of Obamacare, the lingo is less important than the result: Lawmaker and their staffs can avoid the misery of Obamacare using taxpayer funding so that their employer (the Federal government) can contribute up to about 72 percent of their health insurance costs.
Naturally, under OUR Obamacare, if they were participating they would be ineligible for premium assistance and subsidies so instead they have this carve-out so that we pay via our payments to the federal government which in turn pays for its lawmakers and staffers.
Sure, we get it, while not technically an exemption from Obamacare, Obamacare managed to continue federal government contributions to healthcare (around 72 percent) by permitting lawmakers and staffers as employees of the Federal government to avoid the burden of Obamacare provisions instead obtaining health insurance through their employer…the federal government.
It’s not the first double-talking nonsense to emerge from Obamacare, but it’s a great twist because usually it’s the middle class employee citizens on the losing end of every Obamacare provision and Senator Vitter’s efforts might actually NOT be that.
The major criticism that lawmakers have of the Senator is that his goals are “political,” a part of his efforts to become governor. This in itself should have the rest of us laughing, OF COURSE it’s politically motivated the same as Obamacare was, but if it’s got a difference that it is a genuine effort to scrap the loophole that Harry Reid used to undercut his own nonsensical support of Obamacare in the face of a put-your-money-where-your-mouth-is challenge, then it’s already something that we haven’t seen any evidence of in many years, truthfulness concerning an issue.
