This is an original compilation, Copyright © 2017 by Andrew K. Dart

Why the GOP Is in No Rush to Repeal Obamacare.  President Trump recently stated that he would like the House of Representatives to move forward on its revised Obamacare "repeal and replace" bill immediately after Congress returns from its spring recess.  On Saturday, however, Speaker Paul Ryan announced that no vote was scheduled on the measure.  The Trump administration would like to chalk up a legislative win before it crosses the symbolic "first 100 days" mark, but GOP conservatives and moderates are still squabbling over the details of the bill.  Neither camp seems to be in any hurry to get repeal done.  Why not?  The answer is both simple and disgusting.  Congress was granted, and still enjoys, an illegal exemption from Obamacare.

House votes to let insurers offer employer plans that don't comply with Obamacare.  The House on Thursday [9/11/2014] took one last big swipe at Obamacare before of the midterm elections, as two dozen Democrats teamed up with Republicans to pass a bill that lets insurers continue to offer employer health plans that do not meet the law's standards.  Republicans said the bill was a chance for Democrats to keep President Obama's promise that "if you like your health plan, you can keep it," by letting companies continue to offer insurance that doesn't meet Obamacare's stricter requirements.

Obamacare exemptions to grow to 25M by 2016: report.  A new report from the Congressional Budget Office finds that the number of those who don't have to pay fines to opt out of Obamacare — the exempted class — is going to hit 25 million by 2016.  The Wall Street Journal said now, only 4 million are going to pay the opt-out fine — down from 6 million.

More Lawlessness on Obamacare.  The latest example of Obama's selective enforcement of oppressive legislation is his decree that Obamacare's hated individual mandate won't be enforced for those who didn't have Obamacare-compliant insurance during the 4-month stretch from January through April of this year.  This, despite the fact that Obamacare's actual text states that anyone who goes even three consecutive months without Obamacare-compliant insurance in this year must pay the penalty established in law for violating the individual mandate.  A 2-month grace period in law has therefore become a 4-month grace period in practice.

Rep. Steve Stockman Exempts His Staff from Obamacare.  Like Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX), the GOP primary challenger to Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), has exempted his staff from Obamacare.  In late October, the Washington Times reported that Stockman "said his staff unanimously voted to reject Obamacare enrollment, saying the law subsidizes abortion and is a 'Ponzi scheme' that forces young people to pay more for health care."

Sen. Thune: Obama Gives Unions Obamacare Exemption.  Sen. John Thune (R-SD), the chairman of the Senate GOP conference, has discovered that President Barack Obama's administration has decided to grant an exemption to labor unions from Obamacare's reinsurance tax.  On page 70 of regulations the administration published on Monday [11/25/2013], Thune's office noted that a rule would exempt Taft-Hartley union healthcare plans from from the Obamacare reinsurance tax.

$174K-Per-Year Congressmen Will Get Special Obamacare Subsidy.  Under Obamacare — as it is being implemented under a regulation issued by the White House Office of Personnel Management (OPM) — a middle-aged member of Congress who earns an annual salary of $174,000 from the taxpayers, and who has a wife and children, will get a $10,000 subsidy from the taxpayers (over and above his $174,000 salary) to buy a health insurance plan that a regular citizen making almost $80,000 less than the congressman will not get.

Obama Rewrites Rule To Let Unions Avoid ObamaCare Tax.  While millions of Americans deal with the fallout of ObamaCare in the form of increased premiums prices and cancellations, the New York Post reports that President Obama has already moved to protect his Big Labor allies from paying their "fair share."  After publicly refusing to do so, the Administration has quietly "sneaked in a rule that would let some labor unions off the hook for an ObamaCare tax."

Claim: 'Unions May Get Health Law Tax Relief'.  It looks like labor unions might be getting tax relief from Obamacare, according to a report from kaiserhealthnews.org.  "Weeks after denying labor's request to give union members access to health-law subsidies, the Obama administration is signaling it intends to exempt some union plans from one of the law's substantial taxes," reads the report.

Health and Human Services quietly giving unions Obamacare fix.  The Department of Health and Human Services quietly released a final rule last week that includes an intention to exempt some union insurance plans from a substantial new tax known as the reinsurance fee.  As part of Obamacare, the tax was supposed to be levied against all insurance plans to share the risk for insurers taking on the sickest patients next year.  But unions, which were among the strongest supporters of the Affordable Care Act when it passed in 2010, had pressed the administration for changes to the law, arguing that the measure is harmful to insurance plans accessed by more than 15 million union members and would raise costs.

Strategic Move Exempts Health Law From Broader U.S. Statute.  The Affordable Care Act is the biggest new health care program in decades, but the Obama administration has ruled that neither the federal insurance exchange nor the federal subsidies paid to insurance companies on behalf of low-income people are "federal health care programs."  The surprise decision, disclosed last week, exempts subsidized health insurance from a law that bans rebates, kickbacks, bribes and certain other financial arrangements in federal health programs, stripping law enforcement of a powerful tool used to fight fraud in other health care programs, like Medicare.

White House Granted Itself Waiver To Launch Obamacare Website 'Deemed As High Security Risk.  A memo the Obama administration turned over to the House Oversight Committee revealed that the White House granted itself a waiver to launch the faulty HealthCare.gov website with "a level of uncertainty."  The waiver was granted four days before the Oct. 1 launch of the Obamacare website, even though it was "deemed as a high (security) risk," according to CBS News.

Hill aides can quietly stay off health exchanges.  Congressional offices this week have been forced into a frenzied, late-hour scramble to decide which of their staffers will be pushed onto the District of Columbia's health insurance exchanges and which will be able to keep their current health insurance plans.  Under rules created in the wake of Obamacare's implementation, House and Senate personal office staffers — dubbed "official office" aides by the House administrative office — are supposed to get their health insurance through D.C.'s health insurance exchange.

A lie from day one.  Sec. 1251(a)(1) of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) says that no one can be required to give up a plan in effect on March 23, 2010, when the law was passed.  Those plans are "grandfathered."  But following that guarantee is a list of costly requirements that made it difficult for insurers to keep offering your plan.  It gets worse.  Union plans were "grandfathered" with none of those fine print tricks and exceptions.  Sec. 1251(d).

Democrats expected to exempt staff from Obamacare.  Facing a deadline today [10/25/2013] on deciding if Senate and House committees staffers will be swept into Obamacare like personal office aides of members, sources tell Secrets that several Democratic staffs will likely be kept out of the troubled health care system.  Such a move to shield thousands of aides would be a blow to efforts to have all of Capitol Hill enrolled into the system the president and congressional Democrats created.

Sebelius: I'm Not Signing Up for Obamacare.  In an interview with CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta Tuesday night [10/22/2013], Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said she won't be enrolling in the problem-plagued health insurance system that she was charged to implement.

Obama's leadership proves presidency is no place for amateurs.  With ObamaCare, he allowed Nancy Pelosi and her liberal Democratic cohort to ram through the most sweeping — and flawed — piece of social legislation in more than four decades without a single Republican vote, guaranteeing that the unpopular law will be challenged for years to come.  Compounding this mistake, he then handed out waivers and exemptions to the law to politically connected businesses, including restaurants and nightclubs in Nancy Pelosi's district.

Big Labor Set to Win ObamaCare Delay.  As Senate leaders hammer out a deal to end the partial government shutdown and lift the nation's debt ceiling, sources on Capitol Hill tell Breitbart News that labor unions are poised to win a significant delay in an ObamaCare tax.  The delay in the tax, which has long been a goal of Big Labor, is expected to be part of a spending agreement brokered by Sens. Reid and McConnell.

Exemptions pose another big hurdle for Obamacare.  Think you're exempt from Obamacare's individual mandate?  Good luck proving it.  The health law's least popular component — the requirement to obtain insurance or face a tax penalty — also features a lengthy list of exceptions for people facing certain hardships like foreclosure, domestic violence or homelessness.  Members of certain religious sects or Native American tribes also are exempt.  But if the online system for getting into Obamacare coverage is rickety, the system for getting out of the mandate doesn't even exist yet.  HHS says it will take another month at least for the administration to finalize the forms.

It's obvious why people don't trust ObamaCare.  If you're puzzled why ObamaCare is so polarizing, consider how a law that's ostensibly about fairness — health care for all — can be so unfair.  Favored groups like unions and some businesses have carved out exceptions for themselves, while the average American could see their hours cut or their job eliminated.  Perhaps the most frequently talked about, but also most widely misunderstood, dispensations is the one for Congress and its staff.

Congress And Staff Get Gold Health Care — It's Required.  If you use the Obamacare calculator to get a price estimate on health insurance you'll probably be given a price on a silver plan, which is on the low end of the spectrum when it comes to benefits.  They probably don't quote the gold or platinum plans because they're more expensive.  Well, unless your a member of Congress or congressional staffer.  Then you would be required to choose a gold plan, which would be fine since the taxpayers will pick up most of the tab.

Dems vote to keep their perks.  When Obamacare was passed, it included a requirement that members of Congress and their staffs had to sign up for insurance through the exchanges.  But many of these staffers are so well-paid that they're ineligible for taxpayer-funded subsidies — just like every other American earning the same amount.  President Obama, who insists that he "will not negotiate any changes in the Affordable Care Act," stepped in and changed Obamacare, giving these pols and their pals cash to cover their costs.  Cash that comes out of your pocket but that you, regular tax-paying schlub, can't have.

Welcome to Obamacare — fax us your money!  From the moment the last of the 22 pens he used to sign the bill into law left the parchment, the federal government has been gearing up — and, of course, collecting cash — for Day One, non-ironically set 915 days in the future, Oct. 1, 2013.  In the meantime, though, the community organizer from Chicagoland exempted everyone in his administration from the new law (as well as lawmakers and staffers in Congress).  Lots of campaign donors and business buddies in blue states got waivers, too.  But everyone else has to fall in line and get set for the federal government to gain an unfathomable degree of control over their lives.

The Hypocrisy Of Congress's Gold-Plated Health Care.  As close observers of history and human nature, James Madison and the other Founders of the U.S. Constitution knew that the equal and unbiased application of the law to all people, especially elected officials, is essential to freedom and justice and one of the primary safeguards from authoritarianism and oppression by a ruling class.  And so, referring to the members of Congress, James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 57:  "[T]hey can make no law which will not have its full operation on themselves and their friends, as well as on the great mass of the society."  Today, elected officials need to be reminded of these truths.

Republicans think Labor Department has secret Obamacare 'fix' for unions.  Two Republican House lawmakers asked the Labor Department to provide "all legal analyses" it has done on a proposed Obamacare "fix" sought by Big Labor.  The lawmakers think the administration is secretly working on a such a fix but trying to keep it hidden from the public.

Federal workers want everyone on Obamacare except federal workers.  The lion's share of federal workers are all organized in federal employee unions.  Weren't they some of the President's most vocal and active supporters when this train wreck was being shoved through Congress in the first place?

No Obamacare exemptions for Big Labor? We'll see.  The Obamacare rollout has been an uncomfortable one for Big Labor.  Congress passed the law with their blessing, and now they're finding out what's in it, and they want out.

The Chicago Way in Obamaland.  The union bosses who pushed so hard to pass ObamaCare now realize that they are in deep trouble; they won't be able to keep their cushy jobs if the rank and file realize that the sudden loss of hours and/or healthcare benefits of union members is due to the union bosses supporting ObamaCare.  As a result, Obama is trying to figure out a way to provide relief to unions and only unions.  Of course, that's unconstitutional vote buying at its most obvious, but if you're from Chicago that's business as usual.

Hashing Out a Sweetheart Obamacare Deal: Obama Meeting With AFL-CIO.  Guess who's at the White House today?  The AFL-CIO of course.  And who are they meeting with?  President Obama himself.  Why?  They're trying to secure a sweetheart Obamacare waiver and they want you to pay for it.

Obamacare Rules for Congress May Be Delayed.  A memo to House staff on Wednesday [9/11/2013] said that the Office of Personnel Management may not issue the final rules about how members of Congress and congressional staff members can enroll in Obamacare insurance exchanges until after enrollment begins on October 1.

When servants behave as rulers.  [C]oncern about government overreach is not a new phenomenon in America.  However, that concern is now being fueled by blatant favoritism shown to members of Congress and their staffs regarding the requirement to participate in the insurance programs offered by Obamacare. [...] Why are so many people fleeing from this legislation if it is such a great masterpiece?  Would you eat food prepared by a great chef if he refused to eat it himself and all of his staff also refused to eat it?

Republicans question cost of Obamacare price break for unions.  Anticipating a move by the White House to appease unions, top House Republicans asked Congress' auditors to estimate how much it would cost to provide Obamacare subsidies to workers who use multi-employer health plans.

A Test of GOP Resolve on ObamaCare.  The Office of Personnel Management announced — with no legal authority — that Congress could keep receiving its giant subsidies.  Oh, and the OPM also declared that each member of Congress also gets to define which of his staff is covered by the law.  Chances are many staffers will never have to deal with the exchanges at all.  This deal ought to have led to a wild GOP protest, both on philosophical and legal grounds.  Instead, there has been nary a peep of complaint.

ObamaCare: When Socialist Theory Meets Practice.  Every day that passes the public learns more of the unsavory aspects and high costs of this misbegotten legislation, and when the administration isn't waiving its application to its donors and cronies, it is delaying yet another feature of it.

Can Obama write his own laws?.  [Scroll down]  Indeed, the very next day, it was revealed that the administration had unilaterally waived Obamacare's cap on a patient's annual out-of-pocket expenses — a one-year exemption for selected health insurers that is nowhere permitted in the law.  It was simply decreed by an obscure Labor Department regulation.  Which followed a presidentially directed 70-plus percent subsidy for the insurance premiums paid by congressmen and their personal staffs — under a law that denies subsidies for anyone that well-off.

Obamacare exemption — none dare call it treason.  All the legal, constitutional and parliamentary maneuvering is enough to confuse Albert Einstein, but here is the bottom line:  Congress and staff managed to get themselves exempted from the single, most-punishing aspect of Obamacare.

Wait — Isn't Obama Already Defunding Obamacare On His Own?  So there's all those exceptions.  The one at the end, which includes all the union and corporate carve-outs, is a biggie when you add in the delayed employer mandate.  That's one of the main mechanisms by which the hideous law is supposed to be funded.  You get to be one of the others, via the individual mandate.

President Obama seems to regard the law as a mere inconvenience.
Presidential Lawlessness: It's So Cool.  Along with his extra-constitutional decisions to ignore or vacate the law, Obama also unilaterally exempts his friends from the law.  [Quoting Kevin] Williamson:  "Neither does the law empower him arbitrarily to exempt millions of his donors and allies in organized labor from the law, but he has done that too."  Obama has been granting waivers from the ACA mandates since 2011.  The latest is his exemption of Congress and its staff from the mandate.  Obama is buying off Congress.

Members Only.  The White House on Wednesday [8/7/2013] released the legal details behind its ObamaCare bailout for Members of Congress and their staffs, and if anything this rescue is worse than last week's leaks suggested:  Illegal dispensations for the ruling class, different rules for the hoi polloi.

Congress wins relief on Obamacare health plan subsidies.  Congress has won some partial relief for lawmakers and their staffs from the "Obamacare" health reforms that it passed and subjected itself to three years ago.  In a ruling issued on Wednesday, U.S. lawmakers and their staffs will continue to receive a federal contribution toward the health insurance that they must purchase through soon-to-open exchanges created by President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law.

Members, staff will keep health-care subsidies under Obamacare.  Members of Congress and Hill staffers will not lose their health-care subsidies from the government when Obamacare is implemented because of an exception proposed Wednesday [8/7/2013] by the Office of Personnel Management.  Under the current system, the government covers most of the cost of health-care premiums for members and their staffers.  But an amendment to the Affordable Care Act — proposed by Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley — threw those subsidies into question saying that members and staff must enter into the exchanges or be covered by insurance "created" by law.

Congress's Obamacare Waiver.  America has a two-party system.  But it's not Republicans versus Democrats.  It's the ruling class — Republicans and Democrats — against everyone else.  Consider how President Obama just gave Congress its very own Obamacare waiver.

Obama Making his Own Laws — Again.  By what authority did President Obama decide to exempt members of Congress and their staffs from a provision of Obamacare that would deny them their federal subsidy and and make them buy insurance on the exchanges like everyone else?  Obama, as has been widely reported, promised Congress the other day that he would personally see to it that the federal benefit, which pays 75 percent of premiums, would be preserved even after Congress is forced onto the exchanges.

Congress's ObamaCare Exemption.  To adapt H.L. Mencken, nobody ever went broke underestimating the cynicism and self-dealing of the American political class.  Witness their ad-libbed decision, at the 11th hour and on the basis of no legal authority, to create a special exemption for themselves from the ObamaCare health coverage that everybody else is mandated to buy.

IRS Chief: I Want to Keep My Health Care Plan, Not Switch to Obamacare.  IRS chief Daniel Werfel says he wants to keep his health care plan, not switch to Obamacare:  "Mr. Werfel, last week your employees who are a member of the National Treasury Employee's Union sent a form letter for union members to send in to ask they be exempt from the exchanges," a congressman asked.  "Why are your employees trying to exempt themselves from the very law that you're tasked to enforce?"

Agency responsible for enforcing Obamacare doesn't want it to apply to them.  Millions of Americans are going to "go through a change" in their insurance policies and premiums.  Why should [IRS chief Daniel] Werfel and his employees be any different?

IRS chief says he'd rather not switch to ObamaCare plan.  The head of the agency tasked with enforcing ObamaCare said Thursday that he'd rather not get his own health insurance from the system created by the health care overhaul.  "I would prefer to stay with the current policy that I'm pleased with rather than go through a change if I don't need to go through that change," said acting IRS chief Danny Werfel, during a House Ways and Means Committee hearing.

The White House says you can sign up 'without further verification.'
ObamaCare's 'Liar' Subsidies.  The White House seems to regard laws as mere suggestions, including the laws it helped to write.  On the heels of last week's one-year suspension of the Affordable Care Act's employer mandate to offer insurance to workers, the Administration is now waiving a new batch of its own ObamaCare prescriptions.  These disclosures arrived inside a 606-page catch-all final rule that the Health and Human Services Department published on July 5 — a classic Friday news dump, with extra credit for the holiday weekend.

Obama Exempts American Indians from Obamacare Mandate.  The Obama administration on Wednesday broadened an exemption for American Indians from the new health care law's requirement that virtually every U.S. resident has health insurance starting next year.

Congress Can't Weasel Out of ObamaCare.  During the course of the long, contentious and often under-handed battle to pass ObamaCare, Congress did do one honorable thing:  it included the Grassley Amendment in the legislation that ensured that the government could not offer members of the House and Senate and their staffs any insurance plans but those created by the bill or those that were part of the exchanges set up in association with it.

Sebelius Waivers Are For Union Pals, Not Dying Child.  Kathleen Sebelius' claim she can't waive a rule to save a 10-year-old's life is rich, given she was last seen doling out ObamaCare waivers like candy to union groups.  Welcome to the world of politicized health care.

Obama Is Every Bit as Bad as We Warned You.  The common thread in each of these scandals is corruption and a willingness to abuse the expanded powers of big government — while failing to carry out the most basic responsibilities of any government. [...] In Obamacare, Obama rushed through a massive, unworkable law — then granted waivers to key companies and a disproportionate number of unions while his congressional allies worked to exempt themselves.

Exempting Congress From ObamaCare.  The Politico website broke the story Thursday morning [4/25/2013] that Congressional leaders were in hush-hush talks to exempt themselves and their staff from the wonders of ObamaCare.  The story succeeded in blowing up the talks, but there's a bigger story here about Congressional intentions that is worth telling.

How Barack Obama Is Using Health Care to Balkanize America.  What we are now seeing in the country is but one of the many deliberate designs of the Obama administration to pit one group against another and make them beg for some dispensation or waiver.  The class warfare that has been an Obama signature now engages cancer patients and teachers and the military.  Who will be next in line to demand special consideration?  Obama knows only one way to rule — and I do mean rule, since governance has gone by the wayside.  Bribes and special interest group waivers have marked his presidency since the beginning of his term.

Obama's new Interior Secretary nominee received Obamacare waiver for her company.  President Barack Obama's newly-named nominee to run the Department of the Interior, REI CEO Sally Jewell, sought and received a waiver from Obamacare requirements for her outdoor clothing and equipment company in 2011.  The Washington Examiner's Charlie Spiering dug up the revelation Thursday [2/7/2013], noting that Obama welcomed Jewell to the White House in 2009 to jointly argue for the passage of Obamacare.

How's That Obamacare Waiver Workin' Out for Ya?  Exactly two years ago this week, the Obama administration announced it had issued more than 100 waivers en masse to a select group of companies, unions and other health insurance providers seeking relief from the onerous federal health care law.  The Obamacare waiver winner's club now totals 2,000.  Where are they now?  Answer:  In the same miserable boat as every other unlucky business struggling with the crushing costs and burdens of the mandate.