Look out, Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI). You've
famously complained that you can't make ends meet on your $174,000/year salary. One of your Republican colleagues wants you to
suffer more.
A House Republican on Monday proposed a bill that would end federal funding for the health-care premiums of members of Congress, a move that would leave lawmakers fending for themselves after they enter new insurance exchanges forming under Obamacare.
Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.) said she will introduce the legislation after Congress returns from a five-week break in September. “As long as Obamacare remains law, members of Congress should not receive exchange subsidies that are not provided to other Americans,” she said in a statement.
Despite Capito’s remarks, some Americans will qualify for federal premium support while participating in the exchanges, depending on income and number of dependents. But those who make upwards of $170,000, like all members of Congress, would find it hard to qualify without more than a half dozen children.
At least Capito is exempting congressional staff from her masochistic efforts. Unlike her
asshole colleague from North Carolina, Mark Meadows, she apparently doesn't think staff should have to be penalized as a political statement.
It'll be interesting to see how many of her teabagger, grifter colleagues line up behind this proposal. Democrats should put them on the spot and unanimously cosponsor the bill, introduce it in the Senate and bring it to the floor, just to force Republicans to prove how ideologically pure on Obamacare they really are.