Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Sounds Like a Plan

Yesterday was a good day for freshman Congress people: their government-subsidized healthcare benefits kicked in. That includes people who ran against the healthcare bill and who voted to repeal it last month.

Most lawmakers accept this insurance — the same perk afforded to some 8 million federal employees and their families.

But Democrats are crying hypocrisy, saying Republicans who want to repeal the health care law for Americans should not accept similar benefits for themselves.

“It’s hypocritical when they all voted to undo the bill we did, to repeal the bill that we enacted — that the president signed into law — to provide for the first time for many Americans in 2014 access to what we as members of Congress have,” employer-provided health care, Representative Joseph Crowley, D-New York, told CNN in an interview in his Capitol office.

Sixteen freshman are opting out; some because they’re actually standing on principle, but many of them because they either already have it from another source such as a spouse or a retirement plan from a previous job. But the rest of them are perfectly happy to sign up for a socialized job-killing Armageddon-summoning healthcare plan.