Sweet, Sweet Irony: Health Care Bill Strips Congress of Coverage

My belly hurts from laughter! (is that covered, by the way?) Gee, Nancy Pelosi, that whole “we have to pass the bill before you can see what’s in it” deal isn’t working out too well, is it?

What’s worse is that the New York Times, of all places, had to be the one to point it out. When you’ve lost the New York Times ….

The law apparently bars members of Congress from the federal employees health program, on the assumption that lawmakers should join many of their constituents in getting coverage through new state-based markets known as insurance exchanges.

But the research service found that this provision was written in an imprecise, confusing way, so it is not clear when it takes effect.

The new exchanges do not have to be in operation until 2014. But because of a possible “drafting error,” the report says, Congress did not specify an effective date for the section excluding lawmakers from the existing program.

Under well-established canons of statutory interpretation, the report said, “a law takes effect on the date of its enactment” unless Congress clearly specifies otherwise. And Congress did not specify any other effective date for this part of the health care law. The law was enacted when President Obama signed it three weeks ago.

Heh. How about this, Congress? You scrap Obamacare and then you and your staffers can have your fancy pants coverage back, okay? While y’all should be able to pay for your own health insurance, making far more money than those in the private sector, I’d be willing to continue to subsidize you if you repeal this whole damn mess. Thanks!

I’d keep giggling madly (they really need to study up on that whole law of unintended consequences thing), but as Allahpundit points out, the Times brought up an obvious, yet still disturbing fact:

“If they did not know exactly what they were doing to themselves, did lawmakers who wrote and passed the bill fully grasp the details of how it would influence the lives of other Americans?”

Indeed. Clearly, the answer is No. What’s worse? They didn’t care.

(Originally posted at Snark and Boobs)

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