And those "certain persons" are?
Try President Barack Obama and his family, for starters.
Next, Vice President Joe Biden and his family.
Next, Nancy Pelosi.
Next, Hillary Clinton (and Bill, and Chelsea).
And so on, down the line of presidential succession, through the members of the cabinet -- they are all made exempt from the bill's language. (Apparently, the thinking is that the President --along with the members of his family -- should not have to wait for an appointment to be scheduled, or have to receive any kind of clearance beforehand, should he need to have a wart removed, or an ingrown toenail fixed. And nor should the rest of them, or their families -- because after all , they are only a heartbeat away from the presidency, you know.)
But those aren't all the exemptions. No, there were some others exempted -- some really special others, who were in a position to know that they needed to be excluded.
Namely, the committee staffers in the House and Senate who drafted the "reform" legislation.
Remember when Barack Obama boasted that his new law would give people the same kind of coverage that Congress enjoyed? Well not, quite the same as he, Biden, Pelosi, Clinton and those staffers will enjoy.
Shades of Animal Farm! Read the full story here, and weep for your country. (H/T: Transfigurations.) [UPDATE: Another and fuller story is here -- it is beginning to look as though even more people have been exempted from the bill's terms.]
The only fitting epitaph for this legislation is the following (H/T: Still on Patrol):
Let me get this straight......they've passed a health care plan written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn't understand it, voted on by a Congress that hasn't read it but exempts themselves from it, to be signed by a president that also hasn't read it and who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes, all to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that's broke.
We need to pass a law which states that no person preparing, voting on, or carrying out a legislative act can be exempted from its provisions in any respect.
ReplyDeleteMr. Seal,
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, that will not happen unless the person proposing or drafting the law is exempted from the law prohibiting the exemption.
What we need now is to make sure that those voting for or otherwise supporting the health care bill be ousted at the next opportunity, starting this November. Apparently, voting the will of their constituents was not their priority, and not getting re-elected was not their greatest fear. However, we have to understand they are human, and, if in their places, I'm not sure I wouldn't have agreed to ANYTHING, to get Pelosi off my butt.
The epitaph is probably true for a lot of legislation. When it isn't, that will be newsworthy.
ReplyDeleteMr. Seal, those who pass such a law would probably exempt themselves from it! You can't win!
DPK
Christopher Seal,
ReplyDeleteThat wouldn't be a law, it would be an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Your suggestion parallels an idea I have advocated for more than a decade. Perhaps we could find a sympathetic attorney to aid in drafting such binding language and propose it as an amendment.
Pax et bonum,
Keith Töpfer
In what way is the exemption of the President different from the exemption of any person who already has health insurance? Does it mean that Mr. Obama would never be required to have health insurance - which seems to me to be the requirement that is raising the most objections. I have read the editorial (it isn't a story) and it is still unclear what the exemption is.
ReplyDeleteDoes this fall under the "Love thy neighbor as thyself" act, or the "Thou shalt not steal" order?
ReplyDeleteI guess I should shrug and hate the sin but love the sinner .
Duct tape! I need duct tape! to keep my head from exploding!!
ReplyDeleteFunny that the same people who were/are at the head of the table on this hideous bill are the same type of people who are leading TEC - red diaper doper babies who are nothing but grown up hippies who previously protested Vietnam, burned their bra's and are for legalizing hemp. Go figure!
It differs in this way, Fr. Weir: the bill has mandates in it that require every American to purchase a health care policy meeting certain minimum requirements. Down the line, those who have Cadillac plans (which far exceed the minimums) will be taxed on their value. The President and the other members of government already have a super-Cadillac plan which covers every aspect of their care, and the exemption will allow them to keep those plans without ever being taxed on their value.
ReplyDeleteThe final version of the bill will contain many other mandates, taxes and requirements whose language we will not know until we see what amendments pass the House and Senate. But whatever they turn out to be, the President, those in his line of succession, and those all-knowing staffers will not have to be subject to them.
Fr. Weir,
ReplyDeleteI am astonished that a person of your obvious education and erudition should be seemingly so thoroughly unaware that this is how our elected leaders routinely exempt themselves from the law, and have done for most of my adult life which accounts for four decades. With the exception of most criminal statutes, the Congress routinely exempts themselves from the strictures which they so benevolently adopt for the good of the rest of us, the electorate and the financer of their salaries and benefits.
Pax et bonum,
Keith Töpfer
Mr,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the clarification. It raised for me a general question about taxation. In general we are taxed for things we have chosen. We buy something in a jurisdiction where there is sales tax and we are taxed. We take a job and our wages are taxed. We can - and some do - choose to avoid some taxes. The exemption of the President, et al from the Cadillac plan taxes raises a question: did those exempted have the freedom to opt for a non-Cadillac plan? I am not suggesting that the exemption is justified, or even that the tax is a good thing, but simply raising the question about the freesom to avoid taxes and how it might be relevant in this situation.