When folks see me out and about, I am so humbled when they say they wish I was back up on Capitol Hill fighting for the American people. Well, if and when God wishes, if that is His will, it will occur.
But right now the U.S. House and Senate are on their summer recess while President Obama is on summer vacay in Martha’s Vineyard and Veep Biden is hanging out in Hilton Head South Carolina pondering a run for president. No one is watching the store while we have mines blowing up South Korean soldiers, the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul is being attacked, ISIS is blowing up “apostate” prisoners with bombs they dug into the ground and the Taliban attacked a U.S. Special Operations base in Kabul Afghanistan. I am reminded of the Founding Father quote: “Nothing so greatly compels a man to regard the interest of his constituents than the certainly of returning to the general mass of the people from when they were taken where they must share in their burdens.”
That quote came from George Mason at the Virginia ratifying convention for our Constitution. It was never the intent of our Founding Fathers to have career politicians — and recess meant for citizen-legislators to return home to their “regular” jobs. Well, I have a topic about which you, the constituent, should be inquiring of your representatives.
As reported by CNSNews.com, “Both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives certified that they had only 45 employees each in order to sign up for the District of Columbia’s Small Business Exchange. But 12,359 – or 86 percent of the exchange’s enrollees – are members of Congress, congressional staff members, and their spouses and dependents, according to an appeal filed with the D.C. Court of Appeals by Judicial Watch.
The public interest law firm announced Monday that it is appealing the February dismissal of its lawsuit challenging congressional participation in the Obamacare exchange even though the D.C. Exchange Act limits enrollment to small companies with 50 or fewer employees. “Congress obviously has far more than 50 employees,” Judicial Watch attorney Michael Bekesha pointed out in his opening brief. “It has thousands of employees.”
Congress enrolled in the small business exchange when its previous coverage under the Federal Employee Health Benefits plan was terminated by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and congressional employees stood to lose thousands of dollars in “employer contributions” if they enrolled in the District’s individual exchange.
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