Is Congress Being Hypocritical about Obamacare?

It’s necessary and only fair for Congress to live under the rules we pass for everybody else.

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)

Obamacare Has Federal Workers Panicked.

Charles Hurt,  Headline of article in June 13 Washington Times

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, except for Congress and their staff who live in Washington, D.C, where the government goose lays golden eggs for government workers. 

These workers,  who include president Obama, vice-president,  Biden, senior government officials, members of the Cabinet,  congressional Representatives, Senators and their staffs,  are covered under the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program (FEHBP), which is not available to ordinary citizens.   Under FEHBP,  the government subsides cover an average of 72% of their premiums.    This benefit may stop on January 1, 2014,  when these employees will be required to sign up for the health exchanges.

Washington politicians complain this provision in the health  law may cause a “brain drain” among staffers, who will no longer be able to live and work in Washington, D.C., the nation’s boom town  with high living expenses, skyrocketing real estate values,  and citizens living the in country’s  top 5 most affluent zip codes.

Word on Capitol Hill is that behind the scenes,  Congress is lobbying to make the nation’s top politicians and their staffs exempt from Obamacare.  It is not fair, they say, for Senators, Representatives and their staffs  to be forced into health exchanges they created.  It is not fair that their health premiums will go up.  It’s  not fair  that what's good for the rest of us is bad for them. It’s just not fair for Washington politicians, who make $174,000 a year, with guaranteed retirement pay no longer how  long they serve, and their staffs, whose average pay is nearly $100,000 to pay for increased premiums coming under Obamacare, especially young staffers who may be shocked by the "rate shock."

I suppose rank,  gained  by  rising to the top of the political pile,  has its privileges.   But that rank smell in the air at the top of the pile,  may be one of  hypocrisy.

Tweet:    Washington politicians, Senators, Representative, and their staffs may be forced to participate in health exchanges on January 1, 2014.