Good old Joe Biden, introducing Barack Obama at the health-care bill-signing lollapalooza in Washington yesterday, leaned over and whispered into the presidential ear (and a nearby open mike): “This is a big f—ing deal.”
Sure was — though not personally to Veep Potty-Mouth, nor to the president.
They’re exempt, you see.
Really.
No worrying for them about the personal consequences of ObamaCare’s overbearing regulation, worrisome coverage uncertainties and financial confusions.
Same for members of the presidential Cabinet — and all of their staff members.
They and their families are exempt from the calamitous health-care “reform” plan they’ve hung on the rest of the country.
(Think maybe they know something?)
It didn’t have to be this way.
Last fall, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, ranking member of the Finance Committee, proposed that any health-care bill apply to all non-civil-service federal employees — from Obama on down — currently covered by the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.
But when it came time to mark up a final version of the health-care bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid included language that applied only to members of Congress and their personal staffers.
That may well have exempted all congressional staff members employed by committees — staffers heavily involved in actually writing the final bill.
And Reid never allowed Grassley’s amendment to come to the floor for debate and a vote.
How typical.
Before Grassley got the Congressional Accountability Act enacted in 1995, the folks on Capitol Hill routinely exempted themselves from bills that applied to every other American.
Now they’ve done something similar when it comes to health care.
It’s not entirely clear if those left out of the bill will enjoy a better health-care deal than the rest of the American people: Congress is still “fixing” the bill — and many of its programs and costs won’t be implemented for years.
But the folks now covered under the federal employees’ health plan know what they’re getting — and won’t face any of the uncertainties and unknowns that come with an entirely new program that is heavily regulated by Washington.
Yet even if the differences turn out to be insignificant, there’s an important principle involved.
As Grassley puts it: “It’s only fair that top administration officials, who fought so hard for passage of this health-care overhaul, experience it themselves.”
Precisely.