Obama, Pelosi, Reid Exempt Staff from New Federal Health Gulags

Press Release From Congressman John Carter's Office

3/23/2010

(WASHINGTON, DC) – In what will likely be recorded as the greatest political hypocrisy in American history, President Barack Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have exempted the entire Administration along with House and Senate leadership and committee staff members from participation in their new federal healthcare gulags, while forcing rank-and-file House and Senate staff out of the Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan (FEHBP) and into the restricted federal health insurance pools, along with the rest of working Americans.

“This is such an incredible affront to every principle of equality in this country that it demands an immediate apology to the nation by the President,” says House Republican Conference Secretary John Carter. “That should be followed by a straight up-and-down vote in the House and Senate on a bill requiring every Member and staff in both Houses and the Administration be included in this new monstrosity, with no exceptions for leadership, committee staff, the President’s cabinet, or the President. If they think this crap is good enough for Joe the Plumber, then it should be good enough for Barack Obama, Rahm Emmanuel, and Tim Geithner.”

HR 3590, signed into law by President Obama earlier today, removes House and Senate Members and their official staff from FEHBP, forcing them and the rest of the country into the new federal exchanges. However, the bill was amended by Reid in the Senate to exclude all leadership and committee staff, who along with the President, Vice-President, Cabinet Members, thousands of Obama Administration staff, and an unknown number of Czars, would be allowed to remain in the superior FEHBP program.

Carter, himself a member of the House Republican leadership with staffers that would be included in the waiver, says the law should be applied equally to all, or none.

“Either every Member of Congress and the Administration and their staff at every level should move to the federal exchanges, or no American anywhere should be forced to do so. Senator Reid’s actions speak much louder than his words on what this bill was really about,” says Carter.