Delicious, savory irony
WASHINGTON — It is often said that the new health care law will affect almost every American in some way. And, perhaps fittingly if unintentionally, no one may be more affected than members of Congress themselves.
In a new report, the Congressional Research Service says the law may have significant unintended consequences for the “personal health insurance coverage” of senators, representatives and their staff members.
For example, it says, the law may “remove members of Congress and Congressional staff” from their current coverage, in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, before any alternatives are available.
The confusion raises the inevitable question: If they did not know exactly what they were doing to themselves, did lawmakers who wrote and passed the bill fully grasp the details of how it would influence the lives of other Americans?
Via Hot Air, now that Nancy Pelosi has let us “find out what’s in the Bill after it’s been passed” one of the “things” in it is a provision
…The law apparently bars members of Congress from the federal employees health program, on the assumption that lawmakers should join many of their constituents in getting coverage through new state-based markets known as insurance exchanges.
So far so good, right? Well, under this bill these wondrous new “exchanges” don’t start appearing until 2014 or so (as part of the back-loading of the expenses to rig the CBO score) but the bill doesn’t explicitly say that the Congresscritters keep their gold plated program until then.
The new exchanges do not have to be in operation until 2014. But because of a possible “drafting error,” the report says, Congress did not specify an effective date for the section excluding lawmakers from the existing program.
Under well-established canons of statutory interpretation, the report said, “a law takes effect on the date of its enactment” unless Congress clearly specifies otherwise. And Congress did not specify any other effective date for this part of the health care law. The law was enacted when President Obama signed it three weeks ago.
Which means that this wondrous law, tearfully enacted by our modern Solomaic Legislators to “reduce the scandalous number of uninsured” people in this country, has actually increased the number of uninsured: all the Members of Congress and their staffs.
It is stunningly, gorgeously, perfectly delicious.
And yet another clear example that we need to vote out all of these fools and thoroughly thrash (in a non-violent way, of course) any, and I do mean any, elected official who votes on something without having read it and understood it.
Humanity...or the Lack Thereof, Military Thingies | tree hugging sister | 
April 20, 2010 7:05 pm | 
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