Obamacare Crisis? Not For Congress - They Will Be Exempted

Lawmakers and staff can breathe easy. Their health care tab is not going to soar next year. On Friday, August 2nd, The Office of Personnel Management, under heavy pressure from Capitol Hill (read Barack Hussein Obama), will issue a ruling that says the government can continue to make a contribution to the health care premiums of members of Congress and their aides. A White House official confirmed the deal and said the proposed regulations will be issued next week.

In the original text of the Affordable Care Act (read Obamacare), Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) inserted a provision which said members of Congress and their aides must be covered by plans "created" by the law or "offered through an exchange."

Until now, OPM had not said if the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program could contribute premium payments toward plans on the exchange. If payments stopped, lawmakers and aides would have faced thousands of dollars in additional premium payments each year. Under the old system, the government contributed nearly 75 percent of premium payments.

As the deadline approached and they realized what they did to themselves, Congress and staff members raised holy hell.

Under Obamacare, there is a 10% tax of income on insurance. Beyond that, it will give you a subsidy if you make less than $94,000 per year. Senators and Congressmen make $174,000 per year and most congressional staffers make more than $80,000, so they would be unable to take advantage of that subsidy and they would lose the 75% subsidy they now receive from the Federal Employee Health Insurance Program.

They didn't want to have to vote to exempt themselves, so Obama got the Office of Personnel Management to rule that it was ok for Congress and their staff could continue to receive the 75% subsidy under the Federal Employee Health Insurance.

Theoretically, they would still have to go through Obamacare Insurance exchanges, but the 75% subsidy would be independent of that.

So if you're a Congressman or a Senator, you would pay $17,000 per year for a family of four with no subsidy under the original Obamacare law. With the new ruling, Congress would get a 13,000 subsidy, thus paying only $4,000 per year out of pocket.

It's outrageous that Congress doesn't want to be subjected to the same regulations and subsidies that they are imposing on the rest of the nation.

Congress, IRS employees, IRS union members and IRS Chief Werful do not want to apply Obamacare to themselves. Unions have already been excepted for one year. Yet they say it's just peachy for us.....

The News As I See It: The CEO of Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos just bought The Washington Post for $250 million. He just walked into the Post's headquarters and said, "Add to cart." Since Bezos bought the Post before 11 a.m., he got same-day delivery.

Major League Baseball has suspended Alex Rodriguez for 211 games. That is an odd number, but .211 is what they calculated his batting average would have been without drugs. But A-Rod is vowing to come back 10 times bigger and 10 times stronger. I don't know if that's a good sign or not.

A-Rod held a press conference earlier in Chicago. He dodged almost every question. But when asked directly, "Did you use performance-enhancing drugs?" he said, "Me no steroids" and then knocked White Sox Stadium down with his bare hands. It's not just A-Rod.

Baseball gave 12 players 50-game suspensions. The rules are clear. If you're going to do drugs and still expect to play, you'd better be a musician. That's the only way you can do drugs and still play.

Obama recently celebrated his 52nd birthday. You can tell he’s getting older because he no longer supports President Obama.

The Boston Globe news paper has been sold for $70 million, even though 20 years ago it went for $1.1 billion. I couldn’t believe that story when I saw it for free on the Internet.

This Date In History: 1789; Congress established the U.S. War Department. 1947; The wooden raft Kon-Tiki, which carried Thor Heyerdahl and five companions more than 4,000 miles, crashed into a reef in the Pacific.

1959; The United States launched Explorer 6, which sent back a picture of Earth. 1964; Congress passed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which expanded President Johnson's use of military powers in the Vietnam War.

1987; Lynne Cox becomes the first person to swim from the United States to the Soviet Union, making the 2.7 mile trip through the frigid waters of the Bering Strait. Cox is surprised by the (relatively) warm welcome she receives from the Soviets.

1998; U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed, by terrorists. Some 224 were killed and more than 5,500 injured. 2000; Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, was selected by Al Gore to be the first Jewish vice-presidential candidate on a major party ticket.

2007; Barry Bonds passes Hank Aaron on baseball’s all-time home run list. The record, however, is discredited by many because of Bond’s alleged steroid use.

Picture Of The Day: Old-Timer's Disease prevents me from knowing if I showed you this picture before, but it's so damned cute, I'm posting it anyway..... 

Printable Things I Never Told You: 1) There's nothing more disturbing than the first time you hear someone you know using their "whooo's a good dog" voice. 2) If my computer crashed, I wonder if all the other computers would slow down so they can see what's happening. 3) Never buy the first round because that's when people actually care what they're drinking! 4) My friend asked his wife if they could get a hot young nanny. Of course. she got mad and said "No!". When he asked her why, she said, "For one thing, we don't have any kids." 5) If you wake up with a girl and you can't remember her name, take her to Starbucks. They'll write her name on the cup for you.....and that's five !

Today's Horoscope: Leo - August 7th: Admitting to shooting the sheriff is not a good alibi when being accused of shooting the deputy. Any time you feel restless this week, try to imagine what it would be like to take Viagra and Ritalin at the same time.

Birthdays: Alonso de Ercilla y Zuniga, poet 1533, Nathanael Greene, general 1742, Paulina Wright Davis, suffragist 1813, Mata Hari, spy 1876, Louis Leakey, anthropologist 1903, Don Larsen, major league baseball player 1929, Charlize Theron, actress 1975.

The AREA 51 Retirement Home Bar And Grill: Bob was sitting on the plane waiting to fly to Detroit, when a guy took the seat beside him. The guy was an emotional wreck, pale, hands shaking, moaning in fear.

Bob asked, "What's the matter?" The man said, "I've been transferred to Detroit - I've heard the people are crazy there. They've got lots of shootings, gangs, race riots, drugs, poor public schools, and the highest crime rate in the nation."

Bob replied, "I've lived in Detroit all my life. It's not as bad as the media says. Find a nice home, go to work, mind your own business, and enroll your kids in a nice private school. It's as safe a place as anywhere in the world.

The guy relaxed, stopped shaking and said, "Oh, thank you. I've been worried to death. But if you live there and say it's OK, I'll take your word for it. What do you do for a living?" Bob replied, "I'm a tail gunner on a Budweiser truck."

An old man was sitting on a bus. A young man sat down beside him. He had spiked hair in all different colors; green, red, orange, blue and yellow. The old man just stared. Every time the young man looked,the old man was staring.

The young man finally said sarcastically, "What's the matter old timer, never done anything wild in your life?" Without batting an eye, the old man replied, "Yep, I got drunk once and had sex with a parrot. I was just wondering if you were my son.

The Hits Just Keep On Coming: A man enters a barbershop for a shave. While the barber is foaming him up, he mentions the problems he has getting a close shave around the cheeks. The barber says, "I have just the thing," and takes a small wooden ball from a nearby drawer. The barber says, "Just place this between your cheek and gum."

The client places the ball in his mouth and the barber proceeds with the closest shave the man has ever experienced. After a few strokes, the client asks in garbled speech, "What if I swallow it?" The barber says, "No problem, just bring it back tomorrow like everyone else does."

A country doctor went way out to the boondocks to deliver a baby. It was so far out, there was no electricity. When the doctor arrived, no one was home except for the laboring mother and her 5-year-old child. The doctor instructed the child to hold a lantern high so he could see, while he helped the woman deliver the baby.

The child did so, the mother pushed and after a little while, the doctor lifted the newborn baby by the feet and spanked him on the bottom to get him to take his first breath. The doctor then asked the 5-year-old what he thought of the baby. The 5-year-old replied, "Hit him again! He shouldn't have crawled up there in the first place!"

That's it for today, my little bunny rabbits. Remember, don't spend a lot of time picking the most desirable potato chips out of the bag. You're going to eat them all anyway. I'm heading to AREA 51 for happy hour.

More on Friday.

Stay Tuned !