You may recall Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s bizarre comment prior to the passage of ObamaCare socialized medicine that “(W)e have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy.”
That certainly is the reverse of how one would normally hope legislation gets passed in Congress. In theory, at least, lawmakers and the public ought to know what is in a bill before it passes — especially if it’s controversial.
But the Democrats who narrowly passed confusing, trillion-dollar ObamaCare against the will of the American people may have been a bit too clever for their own good.
The Congressional Research Service has put out a report on some unintended effects of ObamaCare on the very senators and representatives who voted for it, as well as on those who opposed it and the staff members of both groups.
It seems that the law, which ran nearly 3,000 pages, is so impossibly complicated that it is not even clear whether lawmakers and their staff will be able to keep their generous federal health insurance coverage. In fact, they could actually be forced off their existing coverage even before alternatives provided for in the legislation become available.
“It is unclear whether members of Congress and Congressional staff who are currently participating in (the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program) may be able to retain this coverage,” the agency stated.
Depending on your view of ObamaCare, you may want to declare, “Serves ’em right!” But think how awful this law must be if even those who enacted it didn’t understand it.
Reporting on the study, The New York Times asks, “If they did not know exactly what they were doing to themselves, did lawmakers who wrote and passed the bill fully grasp the details of how it would influence the lives of other Americans?”
Of course, the answer is no.
Some doubt that it is realistic to repeal ObamaCare. But with a law this bad — for all concerned — do we dare not try?