The way I understand it is Congress is to get a little extra money to subsidize their required participation in Obamacare,,to offset the expense. ...Grassley’s ammendment was just a mention embedded in Obamacare saying that Congress would not be exempt from Obamacare basically,,and that made some Congress critters like Reid and Boxer VERY nervous. Vitter wanted to strip Congress of the extra subsidy so Box and Reid started trying to silence Vitter by dredging up an old prostitution scandal. It just made Vitter angrier. Reid and Boxer were still so nervous about the subsidies getting pulled that they had Obama fix it. According to John Fund at NRO, in an article dated Sept 16 this year, Congress used the aides as the shield saying
“Under behind-the-scenes pressure from members of Congress in both parties, President Obama used the quiet of the August recess to personally order the Office of Personnel Management, which supervises federal employment issues, to interpret the law so as to retain the generous congressional benefits.
OPM had previously balked at issuing such a ruling. Even without OPM, Congress could have voted to restore the subsidies or ordered a salary raise to compensate for the loss of benefits, but that would have been a messy, public process, which everyone wanted to avoid.”
Basically, Congress could have voted itself a raise to offset the costs personally,,but they new that would NOT fly with the public,,,so they quietly lobbied Obama to keep the subsidies in place.
So techinically, they are required to participate,,but they have made sure that expense is covered without any pain from their pockets.
Now they are trying to clarify the dirty deed they did in secret......and it’s a bit difficult for them,,,,
I love it!
The way I understand it is Congress is to get a little extra money to subsidize their required participation in Obamacare,,to offset the expense. ...Grassley’s ammendment was just a mention embedded in Obamacare saying that Congress would not be exempt from Obamacare basically,,and that made some Congress critters like Reid and Boxer VERY nervous. Vitter wanted to strip Congress of the extra subsidy so Box and Reid started trying to silence Vitter by dredging up an old prostitution scandal. It just made Vitter angrier. Reid and Boxer were still so nervous about the subsidies getting pulled that they had Obama fix it. According to John Fund at NRO, in an article dated Sept 16 this year, Congress used the aides as the shield saying
“Under behind-the-scenes pressure from members of Congress in both parties, President Obama used the quiet of the August recess to personally order the Office of Personnel Management, which supervises federal employment issues, to interpret the law so as to retain the generous congressional benefits.
OPM had previously balked at issuing such a ruling. Even without OPM, Congress could have voted to restore the subsidies or ordered a salary raise to compensate for the loss of benefits, but that would have been a messy, public process, which everyone wanted to avoid.”
Basically, Congress could have voted itself a raise to offset the costs personally,,but they new that would NOT fly with the public,,,so they quietly lobbied Obama to keep the subsidies in place.
So techinically, they are required to participate,,but they have made sure that expense is covered without any pain from their pockets.
Now they are trying to clarify the dirty deed they did in secret......and it’s a bit difficult for them,,,,
I love it!