Categorical Imperative
Noun
1. Ethics. the rule of Immanuel Kant that one must do only what one can will that all others should do under similar circumstances.
2. the unconditional command of conscience.

(HT: Dictionary.com)

The United States Government stores a bunch of silly documents written maybe 240 or so years ago. I’m not sure why. The writing is well-nigh illegible and Ezra Klien assures us that people just don’t get documents written over 100 years ago. They should recycle the paper. The US Government certainly doesn’t believe all the silly things written in the Declaration of Independence. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,…” Seriously?

Bill S., a fellow Frontpage Writer at RS.com, offers us a flagrant example of just how much of a joke our current Presidential Administration considers the words from the Declaration that I cited above. Apparantly, if the government official in question works for a member of The United States Congress then implying that any of them are created equal will get you served with a Writ of YAFKM.* They certainly are not created equally when OPM bills them for their health plans. As you can read below, some people are created more equal and will be receiving a discount that the rest of us just aren’t getting.

The White House has approved a deal that will exempt members of Congress and their staff from some of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act, Politico reported late Thursday. Under the law, popularly referred to as Obamacare, lawmakers and their aides were required to source health insurance “created” by the law or offered through one of its exchanges, and without the subsidies they currently enjoy, the members of Congress would have faced thousands of dollars in additional premium payments each year, the report said. However, the Office of Personnel Management now plans to rule that the government can continue to make a contribution to the health-care premiums of the lawmakers and their staff, it said, citing unnamed congressional sources and a White House official.

This flies in the face of decency and fairness. We read from Immanuel Kant above that sauce for the goose should be sauce for the gander. If Congressional staffs and aides would benefit from the suspension of business as usual under ObamaCare; just imagine how much that could help the wrench-turners laboring away at Mike’s Motorshop. It might even help these poor folks to a full-time job. Can you imagine how much it might help their moms and dads? You don’t have to. CBS News tells us that below.

A new study from Pew Research finds that 36 percent of Millennials – young adults ages 18 to 31 – are living at their parents’ homes, the highest number in four decades. A record 21.6 million young adults were still living at home last year.

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid were both overjoyed that OPM had taken this action. Pelosi selectively described the situation below.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., released a statement Thursday night reiterating that staff and lawmakers must sign up for the exchanges. “Members of Congress and their staffs must enroll in health marketplaces as the Affordable Care Act requires. As we continue our work to ensure the smooth implementation of this law and look forward to the start of enrollment on October 1st, we will continue our efforts this August to educate consumers on the law’s provisions and tout the critical benefits already in place for millions of Americans,” she said, with no mention of the deal that OPM is set to announce.

I assure you that these people are much harder up against it than anyone working for a Congressman or Senator. Oh, and guess what? OPM can’t just make those mean old bills disappear for the Congressional Staffers. They need find another payer. That means they intend to find you. Every time somebody gets a deal or an exception. They will need to find another payer. That means they will once again find you.

All of this disingenuous deal-peddling brings some more of those silly things to mind from the documents from the National Archives to mind. “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security…” The country we live in today reminds me less and less of the one I was taught about in US History with each passing act of baronial arrogance from the nation’s capital Panem, oops I mean DC. Maybe this will be the point where people wake up and start coming to take it back.