They don’t call it “gotcha” politics for nothing.
Apparently Congressional Democrats maneuvered their Republicans colleagues into casting votes to repeal President Obama’s healthcare law—while at the same time voting to keep their own taxpayer-funded, lifetime-guaranteed enhanced medical care.
The maneuver now enables Democrats to point a finger at the hypocrisy of Republicans during the November elections, while Republicans will have to scramble to explain why they didn’t want to give the American people access to the same kind of healthcare they get. The Democrats even made a motion to declare that members of Congress who vote in favor of repealing the healthcare law must also agree to repeal their own Congressional healthcare, such as lifetime care and insurance guaranteed regardless of pre-existing conditions.
“House Republicans refuse to admit they voted to give themselves taxpayer funded lifetime guaranteed health care instead of having the same health care as their constituents,” said Jesse Ferguson, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, referring to the fact that members of Congress are eligible for retirement benefits after just five years. “House Republicans didn’t just vote to protect insurance company campaign donor profits this time, they’re even helping themselves to lifetime taxpayer-funded government health care and now they need to be honest with their constituents and admit it,” Ferguson said.
So now, Republicans who go out on the campaign trail railing against so-called “Obamacare” will undoubtedly face questions from constituents who will want to know if government-controlled healthcare is so bad, then why is Congress so eager to make sure they continue it for themselves.
It’s the latest example of how the majority of the action that takes place on the floors of Congress—initiated by both Democrats and Republicans—is more about making the other side look bad and gaining a political advantage than about actually passing laws and setting policy that will benefit the American people. That’s why the approval rating of Congress was just 16 percent in the latest Gallup poll, with 78 percent of Americans surveyed by Gallup disapproving of the job Congress is doing. Though that’s appallingly low, it’s a bit better than the 10 percent approval Congress got back in February.
