-By Warner Todd Huston
For decades it has been a practice in Congress to make sure that federal funds do not go to pay for abortions. But now it has been learned that Obamacare will be used to fund abortion coverage for lawmakers and their staffers.
The Washington Times recently reported that the Office of Personnel Management ruled that members of Congress and their staffs will be able to buy health care plans that pay for abortions even though most of the costs of the premiums are funded by federal subsidies (known as the Congressional exemption from Obamacare).
“Under the terms of Obamacare, lawmakers and their aides are required to ditch their government-sponsored plans and buy insurance on state-based health care exchanges,” the paper reports, “though unlike most people on the exchanges, the staffers and members will have most of the costs of their premiums paid by their employer–in this case, taxpayers.”
Federal law generally prevents taxpayer money from being used to pay for abortions, but OPM said the health care plans offered through the exchange were private. The agency also said it will make sure the money is segregated so that the portion that pays for abortions comes out of the employees’ own contributions, which amounts to about a quarter of the premiums.
“While plans with such coverage may be offered on an Exchange, OPM can and will take appropriate administrative steps to ensure that the cost of any such coverage purchased by a member of Congress or a congressional staffer from a designated [exchange] is accounted for and paid by the individual rather than from the government contribution, consistent with the general prohibition on federal funds being used for this purpose,” OPM said in its ruling.
Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R, NJ) says that this violates a law passed by Congress in 1983.
“You can’t break the law, Mr. President, and just issue a final rule as if somehow you’re comporting with the law,” Mr. Smith told The Washington Times. “We don’t want to subsidize abortion on demand, and the public is absolutely with us.”
It seems pretty clear, here. Federal money will now go to fund abortions. This is clearly against the law as well as against the decades-long practices of Congressional budgeting.
I guess it should surprise no one, of course. Obama and his ilk have been trying to figure ways for the government to pay for infanticide for just as long as Roe v Wade in 1973. Looks like Obama has found a way.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, MrConservative.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, Wizbang.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
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