Just a day after President Barack Obama told Senate Democrats he had personally engaged in the issue of his signature health care law’s effect on lawmakers and their staff, it appears there’s a solution.
Word began circulating around Capitol Hill that the Office of Personnel Management would soon issue guidance to address the way the health care law’s exchanges affect members of Congress and those employed in their offices. Senate aides initially declined to discuss the matter, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid confirmed the existence of a deal to CQ Roll Call leaving the Capitol late Thursday — and a White House official confirmed details of the plan later Thursday evening.
Basically, OPM needed to determine that the federal government could help pay the cost of premiums on the exchanges for congressional employees.
“I’m glad it’s done,” the Nevada Democrat said, directing a request for details to the White House.
A White House official confirmed to CQ Roll Call that OPM will issue the new regulation next week, and in turn lawmakers and aides will not be eligible for the law’s tax credits and subsidies to buy insurance. Members of both parties had asked the administration to step in and clarify that staff was still eligible for employer contributions, fearing an exodus of talent. And enacting a legislative fix would have been messy to say the least given the partisan divide over the law itself.
The provision in question was pushed by Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa. His version of the amendment included language providing the employer contribution for members and staff in the exchanges. But the law itself makes no mention of the employer contribution — hence the mess.
Except of course that this is not just one little bitty exemption - instead it joins the hundreds of previous exemptions, exceptions, delays, interpretations, and political paybacks that this administration has made using the incredibly broad discretionary authority written into ACA - and enacted with not a single Republican vote in either the House or Senate.
As we all learned in our high-school civics classes, America is a government of laws.
Sure it is.....
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