Thanks To ObamaCare, Congress Scores Another Own Goal
Not only will members of Congress and their staffs lose their health care plans under ObamaCare, it now looks like they'll be fined millions for doing so:
Congress may be fined tens of millions of dollars a year under its own health-care law, in part because the bill dumps members of Congress and their staffs from their current health-care plans.
But no one really knows for sure what the bill does, not even the experts. For instance, exactly who qualifies as an "employer"—and therefore is subject to fines up to $3,000 per employee—is undefined in the bill.
If Congress were subject to a $3,000 fine for each of its employees, it would need to shell out approximately $50 million each year to Uncle Sam. Congress's research arm, the Congressional Research Service (CRS), informally confirmed the possibility to Republican aides.
As the New York Times so delicately put it last week, "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?"
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If Congress were subject to a $3,000 fine for each of its employees, it would need to shell out approximately $50 million each year to Uncle Sam.
I'd hate to be one of the guys on the hook for all that dough. Oh, wait...
Hey, you keep saying
we work for you. So cough it up, biotches!
You are so naive, Mr. Suderman. We make the rules, we break the rules.
Where the hell is Everett Dirksen when you need him.
If they were any fucking dumber, they'd need ventilatory assistance.
Now taking bets that the law is quietly amended to exempt these lying, thieving scum.
Another quote FTNYTA: It is often said that the new health care law will affect almost every American in some way.
Is this guy trying to make the most obvious statements of the year or did he just wake up from a coma?
Consider that the staffs write these bills. Then consider who the staffs are. The staffs are payoffs of big donors. Now a big donor has money and a life and no interest in taking a hill job. So who is the staff? The idiot sons and daughters of our wealthy that is who. I don't want junior hanging around the house anymore and he is too stupid to take over the business. So lets send him to work up in Congress and write health care legislation.
? HTML Fail ?
Not only no, Hell no!
Damn! Can't even get my name right this morning.
Hey, we're having trouble, too. Time to pass a law against squirrels.
"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?"
Do you think they actually gave a shit? I don't think they did.
If they had, they might have bothered to read the thing before voting on it.
Congress Scores Another Own Goal
Too bad we're not Colombian, then.
FTW
We'll see.
We're still discovering what's in this lovable new law. Just found out a couple of days ago, it has a provision that specifically forbids imprisonment or garnishment to collect the penalty for not having adequate health insurance coverage.
One interpretation of how that will play out is that the IRS will take any such fines off the top of people's tax refunds, but if you make sure you have no money coming back to you they'll do nothing.
I figure they'll try to quietly revoke the clause before 2014. After all, it was only in there to help the bill pass.
I figure they'll try to quietly revoke the clause before 2014. After all, it was only in there to help the bill pass.
Sooner or later, yeah. Before then, though, they will apply your tax payments first to the penalty, and then come after you with steel-toed jackboots for the remaining shortfall.
they will apply your tax payments first to the penalty, and then come after you with steel-toed jackboots for the remaining shortfall.
FTW
Mods, please close the thread.
Is this what Nancy Pelosi meant when she said we will like this bill when we find out what is in it?
I spoke too soon. Touch?, sir.
Now that the legislation is law, the NYT is all over it (and not in a good way). Where was this spate of critical reports back when it might have done some good??
I will enjoy watching Congress trying to "fix" this little problem without alerting the public that it and its staff will be accorded special consideration under the law. We must insist that they eat cake like the rest of us.
Is it too late to have the whole bill annulled? It's almost like waking up after a Vegas shotgun wedding and going (Who the hell are you?"
I'd laugh if I weren't so busy crying.
Congress may be fined tens of millions of dollars a year under its own health-care law
Preposterous!
We all know Congress is exempt from the laws it writes.
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?
I knew for a fact that New York Times could never write something like this and mean it. They were quoting a Republican congressman from Utah. I would have been shocked otherwise. Now, how long until Mr. Utah congressman is declared a racist?
This makes me not feel all that bad.
good post
But no one really knows for sure what the bill does, not even the experts. For instance, exactly who qualifies as an "employer"?and therefore is subject to fines up to $3,000 per employee?is undefined in the bill.