Tea Party Patriots’ Efforts to End the Obamacare Exemption

In 2013, President Obama colluded with Congressional leaders to devise a way to shield members of Congress, their families, and their staffs from ObamaCare. When ObamaCare was passed, Republican lawmakers pushed to ensure Congress and their staffs would have to live under the law like everyone else. However, in 2013, the directive from President Obama gave members of Congress and their staffs up to $12,000 in an illegal, taxpayer funded subsidy that no other American is entitled to. Since then, Tea Party Patriots has been working hard to expose this fraud and force Congress to live under the law like the rest of us. President Trump has discussed ending this special exemption and we should continue to urge him to do so. Below is a list of activities that we have engaged in since 2013 in an effort to stop this illegal exemption.

Action Items & Events

• Exempt America Tour and Rally – ExemptAmerica.com website (2013)
  In Washington, Tea Party Patriots, which created the defunding tool kit, set up a Web site, exemptamerica.com, to promote a rally last month showcasing many of the Republicans in Congress whom Democrats — and a number of fellow Republicans — say are most responsible for the shutdown. We held a major rally in Washington DC focused on exempting America from Obamacare – since Congress (aka Big Government), Big Business, and Big Labor were all getting special exemptions.
• Exempt America From Obamacare Tele Town Hall (August/September 2013)
  Tele Town Hall About the Exempt America Rally 2013
• Toolkit on Ending the Congressional Exemption (June 2015)
• End Obamacare Exemption Tea Party Patriots organized Congressional Office Visits at 500 local congressional offices on June 17, 2015
• Hold Paul Ryan Accountable Petition (October 2015)
  OF NOTE: Repeal Obamacare! All of it. No exceptions. (Ending the Congressional Exemption from Obamacare)
• Tea Party Patriots Yellow Card Project (project began November 2016)
• Tea Party Patriots Yellow Card Project Details on Ending the Obamacare Exemption (project began November 2016)

TPP Articles

• Exempt America: Reactions From the West Lawn (9/13/2013)
• Statement from Jenny Beth Martin on Sen. Vitter’s efforts to repeal Obamacare exemption (2/5/2015)
• Congress Should Not Be Exempt from Obamacare (6/1/2015)
• Jenny Beth Martin: Time to end the Obamacare exemption! (6/23/2015)
• Ending the Congressional Exemption from Obamacare (8/10/2015)
• Jenny Beth Martin’s Speech at the Western Conservative Summit (6/27/2015)
  OF NOTE: Here’s what’s worse: Most Americans are shocked when they learn that Congress enjoys a special, one-of-a-kind exemption from Obamacare, treatment that no other American citizen enjoys. We need to repeal the congressional exemption – not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it will increase the pressure INSIDE congressional offices.
• Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund Candidate Survey for Donald J Trump (January 2016)
  We asked all the candidates this question. OF NOTE from then candidate and now President Trump: Question 3: WASHINGTON EXEMPTION FROM OBAMACARE Will you sign an Executive Order overturning the Office of Personnel Management ruling that allows Members of Congress to receive illegal health insurance premium subsidies? YES (4/5) 1 = Not likely to make critical issue. 5 = Very likely to make a critical issue
• Tea Party Patriots Signs On To Congressional Ethics Complaint (8/14/2016)
  OF NOTE: In recent months, we have focused our efforts into getting rid of the Congressional Exemption. The Congressional Exemption: where Congress, with it’s more than 12,000 employees, classifies itself as a small business in order to receive a subsidy not available to everyday Americans.
• Washington Report Week of March 13, 2017
  OF NOTE regarding the House “Repeal Bill” that did not
  repeal Obamacare: Not surprisingly, the bill is silent on the question of the special Congressional exemption from ObamaCare.) (Washington Report by Bill Pascoe
• Seven GOP Senators Break Biggest Promise in Modern Politics (7/26/2017)
  Tea Party Patriots statement after Senate failure to pass the 2015 repeal bill text. OF NOTE: We call on President Trump to take action to end the congressional exemption from Obamacare so that senators, their families, and theirs staffs are forced to experience the same hardships that they refuse to lift from the American people. Perhaps if they were forced to live under the law that was unfavorably imposed on the American people, they will finally have the motivation to repeal Obamacare once and for all.
• Moderates Stand in the Way of ObamaCare Repeal, Time for President Trump to End the Congressional Exemption (7/28/2017)
  Tea Party Patriots statement after Senate’s failure to pass skinny repeal of Obamacare

News and Reports

• Politico – “Obamacare litmus test: Lawmaker perks”
  Article about our petition from 2013
• Breitbart – “Congressmen Intentionally Remain ‘Low Information Voters’ on Obamacare” (9/6/2013)
• NY Times – “A Federal Budget Crisis Months in the Planning” (10/5/2013)
  Article mentions of our work in NYTimes. Two noteworthy passages: A defunding “tool kit” created in early September included talking points for the question, “What happens when you shut down the government and you are blamed for it?” The suggested answer was the one House Republicans give today: “We are simply calling to fund the entire government except for the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare.”
• National Reviews – “The Overlooked Election Issue Oped by Heather Higgins and Jenny Beth Martin” (June 13, 2014)
• Breitbart – “GOP Senators’ Pro-Congressional Exemption from Obamacare Crusade Draws Scorn – from America” (5/12/2015)
  Op-ed by Jenny Beth Martin
• Breitbart – “Congressional Accountability and the Power of Grassroots Activism” (6/25/2015)
  Op-ed by Jenny Beth Martin)
• Daily Caller – “The Court Will Not Save Us from Obamacare” (6/25/2015)
  Op-ed by Jenny Beth Martin. OF NOTE: The Supreme Court’s ruling ensures that Americans will continue to suffer under the law. But Congress, the branch of government that wrote and passed Obamacare, enjoys its own special exemption from the law. The text of Obamacare clearly states that Congress must participate in an Obamacare exchange. Congress, which suffers from the same inability to follow the law that Obama administration and the Courts suffer from, lied on its application and enrolled in a small business exchange to protect its subsidies. Yes, Congress, with its 20,000 employees, is the nation’s largest “small business.”
• Congress’ ObamaCare Exemption May Cause Political Trouble At Home (8/14/2015) in Investor’s Business Daily
  Op-ed by Jenny Beth Martin
• Washington Times – “An agenda for House Republicans” (1/6/2016)
  OF NOTE: The third agenda item: Repealing Congress‘ special exemption from ObamaCare. The text of the Affordable Care Act makes clear that members of Congress and their staffs are required to give up their generous taxpayer-funded health benefits, and instead purchase their insurance through the exchanges, just like every other American who purchases insurance through an ObamaCare exchange. But Congress fraudulently declared itself a “small business” so its members and staff could keep the gravy train chugging along. Fully 88 percent of likely voters – and 94 percent of Republicans, and 98 percent of Tea Party supporters – want to see this special exemption repealed.
• Washington Times – “Republicans need Marco Rubio” (7/8/2016)
  Op-ed by Jenny Beth Martin OF NOTE:  It is easy for politicians to voice opposition to Obamacare. After all, nearly every Republican in Congress campaigned in past elections, in one form or another, against Obamacare. It is far more difficult, however, to co-sponsor legislation to strip Congress of its Obamacare exemption… but Sen. Rubio did just that. In order to circumvent the clear language of Obamacare, Congress — with more than 12,000 employees — enrolled itself in the “small business” Obamacare exchange to keep the staffers’ and Members’ taxpayer subsidies. (Leave it to the elitists on Capitol Hill to find a way to provide relief to themselves from the unpopular and unworkable healthcare law while Americans struggle with it!) Sen. Rubio shares our objection to the blatant unfairness of this system and is a key cosponsor of S. 1810, the No Exemption for Washington from Obamacare Act. But that’s not all — at one point last year, Sen. David Vitter, Chairman of the Small Business Committee, needed majority support on his committee to subpoena key congressional officials to find out exactly who had authorized the submission of false documents that wrongly claimed Congress was a “small business.” Under pressure from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Sen. Rand Paul led four other Republicans on the committee to vote with committee Democrats to block the subpoena. Sen. Rubio bravely stood up to the Majority Leader, and sided with Sen. Vitter. That took courage on his part, and we applaud him for standing up to “business as usual” in Washington, D.C….
• The Hill – “Trump should end congressional exemption from ObamaCare” (3/30/2017)
  Op-ed by Jenny Beth Martin
• The Hill – “Republicans, do what you promised on ObamaCare and repeal it now” (7/19/2017)
  Op-ed by Jenny Beth Martin. OF NOTE: ….What could induce reluctant senators to vote for full repeal? It’s simple. Remove their illegal special exemption. President Trump could, with the stroke of a pen, force members of Congress and their staffs to live under the law the way they were meant to — the way the law actually requires, by simply directing the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to reverse its 2013 ruling that created the illegal special exemption in the first place. Because the special exemption was created by President Obama’s fiat, it could be undone by President Trump’s fiat, with no need to pass a pesky little bill through the Congress. The president could announce tomorrow that he will direct OPM to overturn that special treatment effective Oct. 1, the first day of the new fiscal year. That would put Congress on notice, and give them just enough lead time to pass legislation repealing ObamaCare before the deadline. That is the president’s trump card, and it’s time he played it.
• Daily Caller – “How To Motivate Congress To Repeal ObamaCare” (7/21/2017)
  Op-ed by Jenny Beth Martin
• Washington Examiner – “Explaining Trump’s tweets: Does Congress get special treatment under Obamacare?” (7/31/2017)
  OF NOTE: …After the bill failed, Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder and national coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots, said Friday that she thought the policy should be scrapped for members of Congress and their staffs as a way to motivate them to pass a healthcare bill. “To unite congressional Republicans, President Donald Trump should take action to end the congressional exemption from Obamacare,” she said. “It is apparent that since members of Congress, their families and staff do not have to live under the law they passed for every other American, they lack the incentive to take the action they were elected to take. Ending Congress’s special exemption from Obamacare will motivate Republicans to finally keep their promise — if not for principle, at least to improve their own insurance predicament.”
• Washington Times – “Calling Trump: Remove Congress’ illegal exemption from Obamacare now Health care subsidy is illegal” (8/1/2017)
  Op-ed by Jenny Beth Martin)

Social Media

• Facebook Post About Exempt America Rally (9/3/2013)
• Tea Party Patriots tweet February (2/11/2016)
  Congress is exempt from #Obamacare because it’s listed as a small business…. Outrageous! http://bit.ly/1o6fDql #teaparty
• Tea Party Patriots tweet (9/10/2016)
  As #Obamacare unravels, let’s remember that Congress gave themselves a special exemption available to no one else!

Videos

• Video about Exempt America Rally (September 2013)
• South Carolina Freedom Summit Speech by Jenny Beth Martin (5/9/2015)
  OF NOTE: …get rid of the Congressional Exemption from Obamacare. Right now Congress is exempt from Obamacare….It is outside the law and is illegal. Congress needs to live under the law.
• Jenny Beth Martin visits her congressman (6/18/2015)
• Facebook Live Session addresses questions about the Congressional Exemption for Congress and their staffs (8/1/2017)
  OF NOTE: over 193,000 views in 48 hours. It is worth noting that a liberal troll who essentially said I should commit suicide at the beginning of the video agreed with us on ending the congressional exemption by the end of the session. This issue unites Americans and crosses party lines.
• ObamaCare Ads (9/10/2017)