Was Barack Obama worried that if legislators had to live under Obamacare they might be more sympathetic to the law’s critics? Many believe that’s exactly why the President administratively arranged a special waiver for Congress. Their “waiver” contravenes unambiguous language in the Affordable Care Act that defines Congressional participation. But how do you administer such a patently illegal exemption? Through the friendly DC Small Business Exchange of course.
Congress must be the biggest “small business” ever served by the DC Small Business ObamaCare Exchange. The application was signed by someone from the Senate and someone else in the House (their names have been redacted) and the fact that they each swore (upon penalty of perjury) that each body has only 45 employees – since 50 is the legal maximum – is being studiously ignored by all involved. (Scroll down here to see the redacted documents received by Judicial Watch from their FOIA request.)
Apparently, giving them a special waiver that goes through a small business exchange is just “small potatoes” as far as the Administration and legislators are concerned. In fact, Rand Paul (!) recently led four other Republican Senators in opposing a Senate committee’s subpoena to uncover who actually signed the perjured application. They joined together with nine Democrats so that Small Business Committee chairman Senator David Vitter’s motion to uncover the signers failed.
So, for now, more than 13,000 House and Senate legislators and staff are considered working for a “small business” when it comes to their 75% subsidy of Gold level Obamacare coverage. The exchange also happily ignores calculating any earned income at all in awarding this subsidy. And, just to add one more sweet dollop to this mess, the exchange set up dedicated phone lines to help legislators avoid the frustration that citizens have experienced.
If anyone is serious about repealing and replacing this law, demanding that Congress experience it as others do is step one.