Lawsuit Filed in Federal Court to Stop Taxpayer Funding of Illegal Congressional Healthcare Benefits

by:Dave Jolly 
The very Congress that forced the Affordable Care Act upon all of America gets their exchange provided healthcare benefits paid for by taxpayer money. According to the lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch:  

“Since November 2013, the Exchange Authority has allowed the U.S. House of Representatives … and the U.S. Senate … to use the Small Business Exchange to provide health insurance to some (but not all) congressional employees, including members of Congress and these employees’ spouses and dependents … At all relevant times, Defendants have known that the House and the Senate were participating in the Small Business Exchange to provide health insurance to some (but not all) congressional employees … As of February 9, 2014, at least 12,359 congressional employees and their dependents had obtained health insurance through the Small Business Exchange. These 12,359 persons represent approximately 86 percent of the 14,289 persons enrolled in the Small business Exchange between October 1, 2013 and September 9, 2014.”

In their investigation, Judicial Watch found evidence that there were fraudulent applications for the healthcare benefits filed with the D.C. Exchange Authority by members of the US House of Representatives and US Senate. The reasons the applications were considered to be fraudulent is due to the claims that the House and Senate employ fewer than 50 employees when in fact they employ around 20,000, which would make them ineligible under the Small Business Exchange.
In filing their lawsuit, Judicial Watch is seeking to block the spending of $77 million that they claim will be spent by the DC Exchange in violation of the restrictions imposed by Obamacare as passed by Congress.
The lawsuit was originally filed in a lower court but that court dismissed the lawsuit claiming that DC resident Kirby Vining had no standing grounds to bring forth the lawsuit. Judicial Watch has appealed that dismissal to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. They are arguing that since the District Columbia is using municipal funds, aka taxpayer money, to pay for the DC Small Business Exchange healthcare benefits to Congress that he indeed has legal standing since he is a longtime resident and taxpayer in the District Columbia.

In statement about the case, Vining said:
“I am doubly disturbed by what members of Congress and their staff have done here, both because this program was designed to provide benefits for small businesses, businesses that form the spine of our economy and society, but also because Congress has chosen to claim eligibility to participate in this program, claiming to be a ‘small business.’ Congress authored the law, and is going to rather questionable lengths to avoid compliance with the law it drafted.”

Tom Fitton, President of Judicial Watch added:

“It is an abuse of District taxpayers to use D.C. funds to subsidize illegal health insurance for Congress. It is unlawful and unethical for District officials to use local dollars to participate in Congress’s Obamacare fraud. The highest court in the District of Columbia must affirm the right of District taxpayers to protect their monies from being misappropriated by corrupt District officials.”

It’s this type of political corruption that seems to permeate Washington politics that is driving so many people to support Donald Trump and his outrageous remarks. The American people are so tired and distrusting of most politicians that they are turning their attention to political outsiders like Trump and perhaps Ben Carson.
In fact, you can lay a lot of the blame for Trump’s support on Barak Obama. His administration is the most corrupt administration in America’s history. They defy the US Constitution, federal law, federal courts, Congress and the American people. The only ones they care about are themselves and their Muslim extremist friends – Iran and Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood to name just a few. They’ve turned against everything that made America great and are destroying our nation and many Americans are sick and tired of putting up with it.

In many ways, I agree that America needs a shrewd business man who knows how to run a company and will run the government the same way. I’m not saying that Trump is that person, but he can’t be any worse than what we’ve got and in many ways does offer a better solution to fix our economy.