Obama Gives Congress Obamacare Relief — Illegally

by Amy Payne, Heritage Foundation, August 16, 2013

That could be any employer talking about the costs of Obamacare. But it’s a Member of Congress—who’s happy the President will soften the blow for him and his employees.

Ironically, when Members of Congress passed Obamacare, they kicked themselves and their staffs out of their current subsidized employer (federal government) coverage.

As Robert Pear, veteran health reporter for The New York Times, noted back in 2010, “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?”

Now, the Obama Administration says, “No problem.” Congress can keep their health care subsidies ($5,000 for individual coverage or $11,000 for family coverage) and use them in the new Obamacare exchanges.

In a surprise to no one, the President doesn’t actually have legal authority to do that.

Heritage’s Ed Haislmaier explained in detail how the Administration twisted its interpretation of the law to fix Congress’s little problem. As he put it, “It was bad enough that Congress had to pass the law to find out what was in it. Now, the Administration is ignoring the law when they don’t like what they find.”

Obamacare is riddled with problems—but the Administration is only trying to fix the ones that create political problems for the President.

That’s why it delayed the employer mandate—hoping fewer employers would drop coverage before the next election.

Now, to get Congress off its back, the Administration is fixing the problem Congress created—so that lawmakers don’t have to vote to fix their own mess.

Unfortunately, it’s still a mess for the rest of us.

If you think the rest of us shouldn’t be saddled with this unfair, unaffordable, and unworkable law either, join the chorus to Defund Obamacare.

>>> Visit our new Defund Obamacare site

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