Not that this is any surprise, but when Republicans tacked an amendment to the ACA stipulating that Congress would also be subject to its regulations, its authors likely didn’t think things would go this far. That’s why on Wednesday, the Office of Personnel Management—with Obama’s blessing—ruled to continue federal contributions to cover the premiums for the 535 members of the Senate and House of Representatives and thousands of Capitol Hill staff, a detail that had been left unclear by the amendment’s language. This now puts Congress in the same boat of the rest of the country, as was likely originally intended.
Notably, Republicans did not stand up in arms against big government when this ruling came down. There were no fiery speeches made back home to scare up approval ratings, no declines on principle. One wonders, if Senators Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and their ilk make good on their threats of a government shutdown in September, will they be protesting the fact that the government is paying for their health care, or just the fact that it’ll soon be paying for other peoples’, too.
