{"id":22529,"date":"2013-09-23T21:51:56","date_gmt":"2013-09-24T01:51:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/?p=22529"},"modified":"2013-09-23T21:52:12","modified_gmt":"2013-09-24T01:52:12","slug":"the-daily-gouge-tuesday-september-24th-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/?p=22529","title":{"rendered":"The Daily Gouge, Tuesday, September 24th, 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s Tuesday, September 24th, 2013…and here’s The Gouge!<\/strong><\/p>\n

First up, words of wisdom from the<\/strong> WSJ<\/strong><\/em> which will likely go unheeded by elements of the GOP seemingly hell-bent on a confrontation even Sarah Palin realizes they cannot win:
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Carve-outs for Congress <\/span><\/h1>\n

An honest way to take on ObamaCare, if the GOP will give up its benefits and the White House’s special subsidy exemption.<\/span><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"obamacare-exempt-300\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Congress’s ObamaCare confrontation is quickly deepening into a Cuban missile crisis, albeit a version that ends with a mushroom cloud. Smarter Republicans know they might be nuked, which is why they want to back away from the “defunding” brinksmanship. There’s a better strategy if Republicans will put their own privileges in play.<\/p>\n

On Friday the House passed a bill cancelling spending for the Affordable Care Act, but the GOP needs a realistic replacement short of a government shutdown once Senate Democrats restore the money. One option is the illegal ObamaCare exemption for Members and their staff. This dispensation is the only ObamaCare abuse that Republicans won’t criticize.<\/span> Is that because it was perpetrated on their behalf<\/span><\/em>?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The Affordable Care Act requires the 11,000 people who work on Capitol Hill to purchase their health insurance on its exchanges, but many of them earn too much to qualify for subsidies. That’s a financial hit worth about $5,000 for individuals and $11,000 for families. So in early August President Obama’s personnel team came to the rescue with a let-the-good-times-roll regulation that entitles Members and aides to their current premium contributions, on the basis of zero legal authority<\/em><\/span>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Health<\/a><\/p>\n

Liberals consider the income thresholds for ObamaCare subsidies to be important tools for their social engineering. Shielding the elites from those thresholds creates one<\/em><\/span> set of rules for them<\/em><\/span> and another<\/em><\/span> for the rest of America<\/em><\/span>.<\/span> Among the many extralegal ObamaCare waivers and exemptions, carve-outs for well-connected, well-off Washingtonians are among the worst.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

One of the few Republicans who is making himself a Senator non grata by pointing all this out is Lousiana’s David Vitter. He’s been shopping around an amendment that would overturn the opt-out legislatively.<\/p>\n

But his colleagues haven’t taken too kindly to Mr. Vitter’s candor. First GOP staffers colluded with their counterparts across the aisle to prevent Mr. Vitter from attaching his measure to an unrelated energy bill. When their cloakroom mugging failed, Majority Leader Harry Reid<\/span> pulled the whole thing from the floor in part to prevent an up-or-down vote.<\/p>\n

\"got-out-free-obamacare-waiver\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr. Reid then held a tetchy press conference to denounce “these really juvenile political games” and claim that “we’ll be treated like the rest of the federal employees.” Yet Members are supposed to join the exchanges to experience ObamaCare first-hand like their constituents, not from the vantage point of a cushy federal job.<\/p>\n

Mr. Reid’s defensive crouch shows that perks for the political class are impossible for the political class to defend in public. Me-thee favoritism resonates at a visceral level like few other issues, and while the press corps didn’t notice, the subject came up constantly at town halls over the recess.<\/span> An August poll by the conservative group Independent Women’s Voice found that 92%<\/em><\/span> of likely voters think the exemption is unfair, regardless of their view of ObamaCare<\/em><\/span>. Even 88% of Democrats are opposed<\/em><\/span>.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The larger mystery is the Republican cone of silence, unless this is merely a conflict between their wallets and their principles, and their wallets won.<\/span> Advertising to voters that they’re for sale for as little as five grand isn’t the best way to win an election, but some Members really are that dumb.<\/strong><\/span> We hear at a recent House GOP business meeting one Congressman stood up and complained about the hardships of his $174,000 salary, as if he were a line cook at a fast-food restaurant.<\/p>\n

\"OB-ZA242_bennet_G_20130923183326\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We report the incident only to point out that if Republicans were shrewder, they’d try to ride this wave of voter revulsion. Add self-dealing to the rotisserie of ObamaCare grievances and force Democrats to either pass the Vitter amendment or mount a lengthy, embarrassing defense of why they deserve to be treated differently than everybody else.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Republican staffers feel chiselled on take-home pay, and most people understand that large employers sponsor health benefits as part of compensation. The solution is to make staffers whole honestly. Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn says any competently managed congressional office can scrape together the money for raises from its overall budget. This being Congress, maybe such thrift isn’t feasible. In that case, the House and Senate can negotiate a modest salary increase.<\/p>\n

Until the GOP stampede, Democrats were the ones in a health benefits lather, and Nancy Pelosi lobbied the White House to improvise the subsidy fix. Public shaming combined with self-interest would be a powerful incentive for Democrats to give up something in return, even if they’ll never vote to defund the bill. Maybe they’ll agree to repeal the medical device tax, or delay the individual mandate, or help the real fast-food employees who can’t get a full-time job because of ObamaCare’s 30-hour workweek.<\/p>\n

Thanks to Mr. Vitter’s persistence, some Senators and the House leadership seem to be warming to his strategy, and so much the better. Liberals define populism in terms of income, “the rich” against everyone else, but the real class conflict in America is between the government nomenklatura and the masses.<\/span> Republicans are sitting on a potent theme, and if they hate ObamaCare as much as they claim, the least they can do is try to turn the Congressional carve-out to their advantage.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

This is a position even America’s low-information voters can understand; and<\/em><\/span> will likely support given the historically-low approval ratings of politicians in general, and Congress in particular. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Since we’re on the subject of low-information voters and representatives with historically-low approval ratings, we turn now to the Old Mother Hubbard segment, courtesy of the <\/strong>Washington Times<\/strong><\/em>, which<\/strong> reports…<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rep. Nancy Pelosi: Nothing left to cut in budget \u2014 \u2018the cupboard is bare\u2019<\/span><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Keeping-a-Straight-Face\"<\/a><\/p>\n

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi says Republican-led efforts to rein in government spending are pointless because there is nothing left to cut in the almost $4 trillion-a-year federal budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cupboard is bare<\/em><\/span>. There\u2019s no more cuts to make<\/em>.<\/span><\/strong><\/span> It\u2019s really important that people understand that,\u201d<\/strong><\/span> Mrs. Pelosi, California Democrat, said in an interview broadcast Sunday on CNN\u2019s \u201cState of the Union.\u201d \u201cWe cannot have cuts just for the sake of cuts.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

“The cupboard is bare”; yeah…<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"yeahright\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is particularly rich, coming as it does immediately on the heels of this headline featured in yesterday’s edition:<\/strong><\/p>\n

House CR Forks Over $174,000 for Late Senator\u2019s Wife<\/span><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

At the risk of sounding judgmental, we’d have to agree with Wolfgang Puck and say Mrs. Pelosi is a…<\/strong><\/p>\n