Even John Boehner says ” Obamacare is the law of the land.” Enough about Obamacare. Or not.
A collection of Wisconsin Tea Party groups issued a press release this morning calling on Governor Walker to refuse to create the state health insurance exchange required under the Affordable Care Act citing general opposition to the law, but also noting that if the Governor lets the feds create the exchange Wisconsin businesses will somehow be exempt from the $2,000 per employee penalty that will be assessed for failing to provide her/him with health insurance. Huh?
All that’s required of Governors nationwide to sidestep the penalty to their respective business communites is to let the feds create the exchange? Huh?
I called the Wisconsin chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business in Madison, one of a number of business and medical groups in Wisconsin that have supported a state created exchange, and an employee there told me that this was news to her. She said they’d look into it and get back to me.
I also called Citizen Action of Wisconsin, and a fellow there told me that it was his understanding that the content of the Tea Party press release was inaccurate. Assuming he was correct, I asked him how people could come to believe such crazy bullshit, much less put it in a press release. He said he didn’t know.
I would have called someone from the Tea Party collective that put out the press release but there was no name or telephone number attached to it.
So, Wisconsin Tea Partiers, I’ll put it to you here at Blogging Blue and invite you to reply. Why isn’t there a name and telephone number on your press release? Where do you get your information about the Affordable Care Act? Is it possible you’re beating a dead horse with the wrong stick?
Actually there was an article this summer that said exactly what you have described…that if the states ignored the opportunity to establish their own statewide exchange and the feds took the lead…local small businesses could avoid penalties if they failed to provide health care benefits. I thought I saved off the info and have been looking for it unsuccessfully…I wanted to post it here.
Ed,
The Tea Party press release didn’t distinguish between small or large businesses, it simply said ” Wisconsin businesses ” could avoid the penalty if the feds create the exchange.
C’mon, Tea Partiers, help us out here. What’s the straight poop on this, or is it bullshit we’re dealing with?
Steve:
I find it interesting that the Democratic delegation to the 113th Congress just issued a release detailing their letter to Governor Walker calling on him to implement the exchange before the ACA deadline on Nov. 16th. The timing of the TP release seems to be the polar opposite, and could just astroturf generated by his own backers as a preemptive strike to the Dem letter. Does anyone really think that Walker is going to back down on this? It seems he has always maintained opposition to it, and will continue to do so, if only to keep the TPs politically behind him. Considering they are unreasonable and hate Obama with the heat of 1000 Suns, doing nothing is a perfect way for him to keep the low-info crowd angry.