Silly Legislative Tricks
Via The Hill: House bill would force the Supreme Court to enroll in ObamaCare
Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas) said that his SCOTUScare Act would make all nine justices and their employees join the national healthcare law’s exchanges.
[…]
Babin’s potential legislation would only let the federal government provide healthcare to the Supreme Court and its staff via ObamaCare exchanges.
“By eliminating their exemption from ObamaCare, they will see firsthand what the American people are forced to live with,” he added.
So, the basic goal would be to take away their current insurance and make them buy insurance on the exchanges? It isn’t as if there are special “ObamaCare” policies (indeed, the so-called public option was not successfully passed by the Congress).
Of course, given that he opposes the PPACA wouldn’t the analogous treatment for Babin be to have his insurance taken away and then replaced with nothing? Would that not, likewise, force Babin to understand what some Americans have been forced to live with?
Regardless of what one thinks of the law, it is weird to cast those who now have access to health insurance as the victims. This is especially odd in the context of today’s SCOTUS ruling as it preserves subsidies for poorer Americans, so again, they are victims how?
The opponents of ACA reek of desperation and failure…if Republicans in Congress would spend more time governing legitimately rather than trying to pass ridiculous show bills that have no chance of going anywhere we’d all be better off…
Well, except that of the justices on the Court, all but three are currently old enough for Medicare. Roberts and Sotomayor will be there in five years, Kagan in 10.
So really this is the Get Elena Kagan Act of 2015. Yeah, not seeing that passing.
Now if this were a law to remove SCOTUS’s free speech buffer zone, I’d be all over it.
@Hal_10000: Excellent point about Medicare.
Very much representative of the level of Republican thinking.
Because Obamacare, argle-bargle, freedom, USA #1. Yes, it makes no sense, especially given the lawsuit today could only have had one outcome if successful, increase the number of people without health insurance.
I also don’t understand why the GOP is waiting for a lawsuit or something else to throw the insurance markets into chaos before being willing to discuss health care reform. Seems to me a conservative and prudent approach would be to address the issue before it’s critical, rather than intentionally causing the catastrophe.
@michael reynolds:
Read through the comments on that article for a vivid example of Republican thinking
Seems to me that Congressman Babin should work to invalidate the Office of Personnel Management subsidies for the Congress and their staffs that they receive when they have to go onto the DC Exchange for their health insurance. That should make him popular.
Hmmm… Yes, all those ‘horror stories’ about people being forced to get insurance like, well… we’ll find some someday, versus all those brave souls who fought the system and obtained their health care in the freedom loving tradition like Arizona sheriff Richard Mack, or South Carolina resident Luis Lang.
@HarvardLaw92:
Wow. They started with the crazy right out of the gates, and never looked back.