To hear Senators Harry Reid (D-NV) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY) tell it, America’s long national nightmare is over.
Except…it’s not.
Our national nightmare isn’t the government shutdown; it’s Obamacare.
Congressional leaders have been congratulating themselves on reaching a deal to spend more of our money—a deal that keeps their own special Obamacare treatment.
But while they were arguing about it, regular people have been reeling from the horror of Obamacare’s insurance hikes.
>>> See the latest stories that have poured in about the #ObamaHikes
That’s right—Members of Congress and their staffs are still getting their taxpayer-funded subsidies to pay for their health insurance.
That $5,000 for individual coverage or $11,000 for family coverage will come in pretty handy for them if they’re shopping on the Obamacare exchanges, where Heritage research shows premiums are up in nearly every state.
Congress has ignored the shocked outcry from Americans opening letters from their insurance companies.
And those letters are landing in the mailboxes of both liberals and conservatives. One woman who voted for President Obama found out she will pay $1,800 more for her insurance next year. She told the San Jose Mercury News, “Of course, I want people to have health care. I just didn’t realize I would be the one who was going to pay for it personally.”
This is the new reality under Obamacare. Instead of giving people relief from these crushing blows to their finances, Congress made a deal to borrow more and keep Washington’s spending spree going.
As Heritage’s Grover M. Hermann Fellow Romina Boccia wrote yesterday, the deal “locks in Obamacare’s implementation with no relief in sight for those Americans who are seeing their premiums increase, their working hours cut, and their job opportunities diminished.”
Congress didn’t listen to the people who are wondering how they’re going to make ends meet in just a few months. It didn’t listen to you.
But we’re listening—keep sending us your stories about how Obamacare is impacting your family. And our experts will keep the vital information coming on everything from Congress’s unfair, illegal deals for themselves to how much everyone else is paying in the insurance exchanges.
And we’ll be here when government funding runs out again in January—and we hit the debt ceiling again in February. Because Congress doesn’t seem to learn.
Read the Morning Bell and more en español every day at Heritage Libertad.
Quick Hits:
- Beware of scammers asking you for money to get their help navigating Obamacare—or asking for your Medicare account information or other personal information.
- No more ice cream? Obamacare flavor is too expensive for this iconic Indiana company.
- Republicans would be “crazy” to negotiate with President Obama on an immigration bill, says a pro-reform conservative.
- According to independent analysis, fewer than 1 percent of visitors to the Obamacare exchange actually enrolled. And there’s a chart with similar results from another study.
- Is it possible that Oreos are more addictive than cocaine?
- This Obamacare parody video is going viral. Have you watched it yet?
