Congress exempt from Obamacare? There ought to be a law!

What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

You've heard the phrase and know what it means.

But Congress doesn't.

Politico is reporting:

Congressional leaders in both parties are engaged in high-level, confidential talks about exempting lawmakers and Capitol Hill aides from the insurance exchanges they are mandated to join as part of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, sources in both parties said.

The talks — which involve Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), the Obama administration and other top lawmakers — are extraordinarily sensitive, with both sides acutely aware of the potential for political fallout from giving carve-outs from the hugely controversial law to 535 lawmakers and thousands of their aides. Discussions have stretched out for months, sources said.

A source close to the talks says: “Everyone has to hold hands on this and jump, or nothing is going to get done.”
Yet if Capitol Hill leaders move forward with the plan, they risk being dubbed hypocrites by their political rivals and the American public. By removing themselves from a key Obamacare component, lawmakers and aides would be held to a different standard than the people who put them in office.

But what to do about this?

Erick Erickson at RedState.com says:

If this happens, the nation needs to collectively march on Washington, DC, burn it to the ground, and spread salt over the ground.

Normally, I'm not one for calling for a new law whenever a problem exists, but clearly this is an exception.

There's already a push for a 28th Amendment:

“Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States”.

But I'd go a step further: whenever Congress passes and the administration implements a new law, it must first be applied to members of Congress, the administration and the federal government for a period of three years before it is applied to the public at large.

Don't you think that if they had to live with the mess they create, they'd quickly repeal bad laws and provisions?

Maybe not, but it would definitely be a learning experience.

The only problem is that no such law or provision will ever be passed by people who are already discussing ways to exempt themselves from Obamacare.

Maybe Erickson is right...where's my salt?