Legislate in haste, repent in leisure
That’s how Tom Mcguire describes this bit of a laugh about the bill nobody apparently read – health care reform:
The law apparently bars members of Congress from the federal employees health program, on the assumption that lawmakers should join many of their constituents in getting coverage through new state-based markets known as insurance exchanges.
But the research service found that this provision was written in an imprecise, confusing way, so it is not clear when it takes effect.
The new exchanges do not have to be in operation until 2014. But because of a possible “drafting error,” the report says, Congress did not specify an effective date for the section excluding lawmakers from the existing program.
Under well-established canons of statutory interpretation, the report said, “a law takes effect on the date of its enactment” unless Congress clearly specifies otherwise. And Congress did not specify any other effective date for this part of the health care law. The law was enacted when President Obama signed it three weeks ago.
Yes it’s ironic – but it also pathetic. It gives you an idea of how “carefully crafted” the bill was and how much time our legislators spent considering its consequences and weighing its impact. Zip. None. Nada. They didn’t even know they’d written themselves out of their present insurance coverage. Can you imagine they know anything about what they’ve done to yours?
Of course we all know they’ll fix that – and if anyone doubts that, I have a great set of relics from Christian saints you might be interested in. Frankly I think they should be barred from doing so – but that’s just my opinion. But this certainly indicates that the law of unintended consequences is not only loose, but running rampant in areas the legislators most likely don’t even know exist at this point in time.
Is this what you pay them to do? Is this a reason to retain their services?
What would you do with an employee this freakin’ dumb and inept?
Unfortunately you can’t do it today – see you in November.
~McQ