A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

How Congress mysteriously became a small business to


Posted: Jul 29, 2017

Portrait of Robert Moffit Robert Moffit Robert E. Moffit, a seasoned veteran of more than three decades in Washington policymaking, is a senior fellow in The Heritage Foundation's Center for Health Policy Studies. Read his research. It seems that federal officials have worked overtime to undermine public trust. Benghazi, the IRS abuses, the “fast and furious” gun-running fiasco, the solar power boondoggles, and the seemingly endless implementation problems of the Affordable Care Act—all these scandals have common themes: arrogant and abusive bureaucracy, double dealing, lame excuses, and legal hairsplitting.  All these scandals have common themes: arrogant and abusive bureaucracy, double dealing, lame excuses, and legal hairsplitting. The outrages listed above can be placed squarely at the doorstep of the White House. But one scandal is truly bipartisan: How key administration and congressional officials connived to create, under cover of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, special health insurance subsidies for members of Congress. Here’s how it went down. Rushing to enact the giant Obamacare bill in March 2010, Congress voted itself out of its own employer-sponsored health insurance coverage—the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. Section 1312(d)(3)(D) required members of Congress and staff to enroll in the new health insurance exchange system. But in pulling out of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, they also cut themselves off from their employer-based insurance contributions. (It should be noted that, before final passage, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, offered an amendment that would have provided Federal Employees Health Benefits Program subsidies for congressional enrollees in Obamacare, but Senate Democrats defeated it on a procedural vote, 56-43.) Obamacare’s insurance subsidies for ordinary Americans are generous, but capped by income. No one with an annual income over $47,080 gets a subsidy. That’s well below typical Capitol Hill salaries. Members of Congress make $174,000 annually, and many on their staff have impressive, upper-middle-class paychecks. Maybe the lawmakers didn’t understand what they were doing, but The New York Times’ perspicacious Robert Pear certainly did. On April 12, 2010, Pear wryly wrote, “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?” So, let’s follow the thickening plot: Act One—Congress Has a Panic Attack Realizing what they had done, congressional leaders sought desperately to get fatter taxpayer subsidies in the Obamacare exchange system. In a nutshell, they wanted special funding unavailable to other Americans. The standard excuse was that, without a special “sweetener,” a Capitol Hill “brain drain” would ensue; the best and brightest would flee to the private sector to get more affordable employment-based coverage. From 2010 to 2013, House and Senate leaders schemed to get extra taxpayer subsidies—past “the Tea Party rabble”—without a lot of noise, and secure a nice, quiet “administrative” remedy from the Obama administration. Their hopes centered on a compliant Office of Personnel Management, the agency that administers the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, providing the unauthorized relief. No recorded votes. No ugly floor fights. Act Two—Congress Gets Taxpayers’ Money Without Appropriating It Anticipating an attempted “end run” around the law, on Aug. 2, 2013, The Heritage Foundation published a detailed paper outlining the legislative history of the controversy. The analysis concluded that neither the Affordable Care Act nor Chapter 89 of Title V (the law governing the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program) authorized the transfer of monies in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program trust fund for use in health plans outside of the program. Shortly thereafter, on Aug. 13, 2013, Timothy Jost, professor of law at Washington and Lee University, wrote in his Health Affairs Blog: The exchanges are only open to individuals and small employers. No large employers can participate in the exchange, at least not yet. There is no provision, therefore for large employers, including the largest—the United States government—to pay for exchange coverage. Digging into the role of former House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., on Oct. 1, 2013, Politico reported, “OPM initially ruled that lawmakers and staffers couldn’t receive the subsidies once they went into the exchanges.” But, at a July 31 closed-door meeting with Senate Democrats, President Barack Obama had promised he would “fix” the mess they made of their health coverage. So, on Aug. 7, 2013, just as Congress was getting out of town for the August recess, the Office of Personnel Management ruled that members of Congress and staff enrolled in the exchange program would get Federal Employees Health Benefits Program subsidies, even though they were no longer in the program. Act Three—Congress Magically Becomes a Small Business In a second iteration of its rule-making, the Office of Personnel Management declared that Congress and staff were eligible to enroll in the Washington, D.C., “SHOP” Exchange, a health insurance exchange reserved for small businesses with fewer than 50 employees. The exchange offers special insurance subsidies to participating small businesses. The problem was, of course, that Congress is not a “small business,” at least under any clinically sane definition of the term, and no section of the Affordable Care Act provided for any congressional exemption from the ban on large employer participation in the SHOP exchanges. It’s hard to imagine a more arbitrary ruling. Act Four—Congressional Bureaucrats File False Paperwork In filing to get the special insurance subsidies for enrolling lawmakers and their staff members in the D.C. “SHOP” Exchange, congressional officials claimed that the Senate and House each had only 45 employees. That false information allowed both chambers to meet the magic number requirement. In Feb. 2015, Sen. David Vitter, R-La., a member of the Senate’s Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, attempted to subpoena these un-redacted documents, only to be stymied by all nine committee Democrats and five Republicans. According to National Review, Vitter’s effort was opposed by the Senate leadership. As for the five committee Republicans, they alibied their votes with excuses that ranged from the merely lame to the transparently absurd. Now the issue is simmering again. This month, Michael Cannon of the CATO Institute and John Malcolm, director of The Heritage Foundation’s Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, wrote in The Hill: Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that unnamed officials who administer benefits for Congress made clearly false statements when they applied to have the House and Senate participate in D.C.’s ‘SHOP’ Exchange for 2014. Notably, they claimed the 435-member House had only 45 members and 45 staffers, while the 100-member Senate had only 45 employees total. Rather than a good faith clerical error, this was an intentional falsehood, which makes it a crime under both federal and D.C. law. Nicholas Bagley, professor of law at the University of Michigan, says that Malcolm and Cannon’s charge is “irresponsible.” He insists that the Office of Personnel Management’s rule-making legitimizes these bizarre congressional gymnastics. But Bagley’s argument merely assumes what is to be proven. It is the Office of Personnel Management’s behavior, in the first place, that is at issue. A serious congressional investigation would determine whether or not office’s career staff had indeed determined that the agency could not authorize subsidies outside of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. It would reveal whether or not they were coerced into ruling contrary to their understanding of the law, and who specifically was pressuring them. Of course, such an investigation would secure all relevant Office of Personnel Management documents, including memos, meeting notes, emails, or other communications, especially from the White House. Congress has options. Congress could, for example, admit that it isn’t a “small business” after all, and re-enroll in the Obamacare health insurance exchange system on the same terms and conditions as every other American participating in the system. Alternatively, Congress could resurrect the original Grassley amendment, enacting Federal Employees Health Benefits Program subsidies outright, giving them statutory legitimacy, while enrolling the president, cabinet officials, and all political appointees in Obamacare. That, at least, would be constitutional. Or, Congress could repeal Section 1312(d)(3)(D) and re-enroll members and staff in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. This would enable them, as the president initially promised all Americans, to keep the plans they had and they liked. But it has a public relations downside. Lawmakers can pursue any of these options right away. The best option will take some time. It’s a matter of Congress cleaning up its own self-made mess, and a lot of others, by repealing the Affordable Care Act altogether. ;

Similar Messages:


How Congress Mysteriously Became A Small Business To Jul 29, 2017
It seems that federal officials have worked overtime to undermine public trust. Benghazi, the IRS abuses, the “fast and furious” gun-running fiasco, the solar power boondoggles, and the seemingly endless implementation problems of the Affordable Care Act—all these scandals have common themes: arrogant and abusive bureaucracy, double dealing, lame excuses, and legal hairsplitting.  All these scandals have common themes: arrogant and abusive bureaucracy, double dealing, lame excuses, ...

Obamacare Working For Small BusinessJan 20, 2011
More Small Businesses Offering Health Care To Employees Thanks To Obamacare Jan. 6 2011 - 2:18 pm By RICK UNGAR The first statistics are coming in and, to the surprise of a great many, Obamacare might just be working to bring health care to working Americans precisely as promised. The major health insurance companies around the country are reporting a significant increase in small businesses offering health care benefits to their employees. Why? Because the tax cut created in the new heal ...

Advertising Small Business On FacebookJan 27, 2010
Has anyone had success with advertising a small business using a fan page (or whatever they call it) on FB?  I have yet to set up an account.  I do not want a personal account as I have been told that FB tries to link your personal and business info together.  In addition to being a PT MT, I am also a travel consultant working out of my home.  It's an established family business with a long-time website.  I would like to use that website name as ...

Own A Small Business? Join Community Organization In Your Area - Feb 19, 2015
They will save you  money, will also handle security detail for your business. ...

Small Business Owners Demand Repeal Of Bush Tax CutsMay 04, 2011
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/04/small-business-owners-bush-tax-cuts-rich-repeal_n_857204.html I've always felt this way. Glad to see more people are coming to the conclusion that those tax cuts didn't help us as small business owners. My own business started down as customers had less money, and I got the tax cuts. Something just never seemed right about that. ...

Guess Who Blocked The Paid For Small Business Lending BillJul 29, 2010
Wanna know why?  Because extension of expiring tax breaks for the rich (estate tax on amounts greater than $1 million) were not included, so they threw a hissy.  Every time Reid offered compromises on other amendments, GOP demands changed (sound familiar?).  Now lets see here, true colors shown on this would be anti-small business, anti-tax breaks for anyone who is not rich and anti-jobs creation.  Nice job.  Oh, lest we forget.  Their objections did ...

Small Improvements Apr 10, 2012
Small improvements Small improvements matter, because they can add up to big changes. If you add just one percent to your efforts each day, day after day, in only seventy days your effectiveness will double. Small improvements are easy to make, and they can make a big difference. The key is to keep making them, to continue improving on the improvements. Are you frustrated because you’re not as effective as you’d like to be? You can begin to change that right now, and put an end to ...

Small MT Company May Have To CloseJan 04, 2010
A wonderful small MT company in my town will soon be faced with closing if the Health Care Reform bill is passed.  She does not provide health insurance for her MTs but pays them well enough that they can afford their own (14 cpl).  She cannot afford health insurance for them because her group is too small for any significant discounts.  If the Health Care Reform passes which states that employers who do not provide health insurance will be fined/taxed $750 per employee, this MT c ...

98% Of Small Businesses Will Not Be Subject To Dec 02, 2010
See article. ...

Just A Small Tidbit Of Info For You (sm)Aug 15, 2012
A former four-term Democratic congressman from Alabama and one time strong supporter of President Barack Obama will campaign for Mitt Romney Wednesday in Virginia - Obama's former campaign aide. ...

GOP--irritating Small Dog ApproachNov 21, 2014
Today, again, announced they are suing the President for Obamacare.  I think President Obama kicked the small dog in the teeth last night.  I am absolutely against animal abuse, but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do to move on.   Maybe the GOP could go to obedience school and learn how to play with the big dogs. ...

What Small Car Owners Should Know About Car InsuranceApr 14, 2015
Americans are known around the world for their love of big cars. Many wouldn’t be caught dead behind the wheel of one of those little cars you’re more likely to see on the streets in Europe. But as gas prices continue to climb higher and more Americans become concerned with the environmental impact of larger, less fuel-efficient cars, small cars are starting to grow in popularity even here. What many haven’t considered is that smaller cars tend to have a lower safety rating. For example in ...

Update RE: Favoritism In A Small Town.Sep 26, 2011
Well, after I blew off steam here.  I decided to keep my mouth shut.  No telling anyone off or mouthing off in the stands.  I had very nicely asked the coach if there was anything my DD needed to work on to be able to be a flyer and I decided to just leave it at that.  I decided that I would alienate my daughter more by running my mouth and I decided nothing would change anyway.  So I threw up my hands in futility and swallowed my anger which was EXTREMELY difficult! Fa ...

Can Someone Recommend A Small Multivitamin Pill?Oct 12, 2009
The last 3 multivites I have tried are too big and I have a really hard time swallowing them.  Splitting the pill causes it to get caught up in the throat.  Whatever happened to those small One-A-Days?  The chewable kind are almost double the cost of tablets.  Any suggestions?  ...

Small Lesion On Breast, How ConcernedOct 19, 2009
I just had a mammogram in March of this year, everything fine. I noticed a slightly bigger than pencil eraser size reddish lesion on 1 margin of my breast day before yesterday. I have had other skin lesions and made visits to the dermatologist as recent as about 2 months ago, had seborrheic dermatitis on my face, also notice sometimes I have like a red, itching place on the upper groin. I wonder if I should be worried enough to go back in and have this latest place checked out? ...

How Do You Handle Favoritism In A Small Town?!?Sep 20, 2011
I moved to this very small town 5 years ago, and I have noticed that favoritism, who you know, how much money you have, etc. plays a HUGE part in kids sports, school activities, town activities, etc.  Now, I'm not one of those mothers who thinks that my children are the best at everything they do and deserve to be the star all of the time.  Also I have seen it happen to other kids that aren't my own and I've heard other parents complaining about among themselves whilst s ...

Questions For Parents With Small ChildrenJun 20, 2011
Do you children (maybe around 4 years old) cry a lot?  We have a neighbor who has a little girl and she is always crying - and I mean always.  I don't think we've ever heard longer than a half hour without her crying.  She's playing with other kids and she cries, she's in the swimming pool and she's crying, eating crying, etc, etc.  Since I never had kids or friends who had kids I don't know if this is normal.  Just was curious. ...

Looking For Recommendation For Unsecured Small Loans For Sep 30, 2013
nm ...

Live In The Midwest And Would Like To Buy A Small HouseMay 05, 2015
This would be in the country, possibly right outside of or on the outskirts of a small town, farming communities.  Its about 30 minutes from several larger cities and suburbs of Chicago, so lots of diversity in incomes living close but affordable to purchase. I would love to have a small house, the white picket fence, a few small outbuildings to fix up and maybe do a big garden, etc.  I was just wondering if anyone has suggestions as to what kind of income could be had ...

I Took In A Little Male Dog. He's A Small Dog With Tons Of Energy And Spirit.Jan 03, 2012
Here's my problem.  He is the worst dog ever!  He knocks over the trash cans and gets into the trash, he hikes his leg on everything from my bed, to my couch, to who knows what.  He hates my cat.  He barks at every thing.  And to top it all off, he has become very attached to my daughter to the point that he wants to sleep with her which is an absolute no.  However, he manages to slip into her room at night and when I try to remove him from the bed, he becomes ...

I Need A Dry Dog Food For My Small Dog That Is Soft With Smallish Chunks.Oct 06, 2011
I haven't had her for long.  I adopted her from some redneck looking people who were trying to pass her off as a puppy in the Wal-Mart parking lot.  She just looked so sad, and I just had to take her.  She's not a puppy.  The vet said she's at least three years old.  Anyway, I bought kibble and bits and I noticed she roots around in the bowl and eats all the chewy bits.  She will eventually eat the kibble, but it seems like it is too big and too ...

Has Anyone Ever Fought Debt Fees In Small Claims?Jul 14, 2010
Around 3 years ago I had a credit card that I put a pair of tires put on (about $180).  I then promptly essentially lost my job and had a series of job hopping over the next year, going through about five jobs, none of them living up to their lofty promise of easy platform and lots of work.  In keeping the soap opera-esque quality, I was also dating an alcoholic at that time, and after I lost my job I moved in with him so I could save on electricity, internet, cable, telephone, etc.&nb ...

74% Of Small Businsses Will Fire Workers Under ObamacareJul 17, 2013
I've been reading a lot about this.  Full time workers will be fired or hours cut thanks to Obamacare.   http://washingtonexaminer.com/74-of-small-businesses-will-fire-workers-cut-hours-under-obamacare/article/2533131 ...

Last Evening I Attended A Small Spontaneous Welcome Home Rally...smJun 09, 2016
when he landed at the Burlington airport.  He bypassed the reporters and his motorcade left the airport.  We were congregated just down the block and he instructions Ted the driver to stop and got out and greeted us all with hugs.  The Secret Service was going nuts!  Anyone interested can watch this video.  I just feel bad that we didn't do enough to show the rest of the country what a good man he is and what a wonderful president he would have made for all the peop ...

Small Towns Watch Aging Hospitals ShutterMar 05, 2016
Saw this on PBS last night. My heart breaks for these small towns. In a lot of them, the hospital was the anchor. People have lost jobs, stores have closed, seniors have to travel hundreds of miles for health care. What has become of this country? More than 50 rural hospitals have closed since 2010 (during Okingme's reign) as well as many more community hospitals throughout the land. ...

How Do You Allow Your Dog To Do Their Business?Feb 16, 2010
So to those who do own dogs, do you walk them, tie them to a tree/lead or just let them wander around the yard (hopefully a fenced yard) on their own? While I was growing up, we raised 3 dogs and all lived to be from 14-17 yo. They were always walked several times a day no matter what the weather was. Never did we have them outside in a yard, nor did we have them tied to a tree or anything else. To my parents, tying them up and allowing them be alone outside was just unthinkable. In two weeks, ...

More BusinessFeb 09, 2017
This circus never ends. ...

Welcome To Business 101. May Be 105?Aug 26, 2017
How Trump is Draining the Swamp Chaos or strategy? This Might Explain a Lot of Things Going on at The White House "Apparently, liberals and never-Trumpers are so isolated in their political circles that they have no concept how things work in the real world of business and corporate America. For example, they completely fail to grasp the concept of the "hatchet man." Allow me to explain: Say you are a business tycoon. You just successfully completed a large-scale acquisition an ...

How To Build A Small Simple Deck; Can You Recommend A Good Website?Nov 12, 2009
n/m ...

Choose One Thing Each Day To Give Thanks For, No Matter How Small Or Seemingly Insignificant...nmApr 15, 2015
...