{"id":1483,"date":"2013-10-17T05:53:24","date_gmt":"2013-10-17T09:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dougsbriefcase.com\/blog\/?p=1483"},"modified":"2013-10-17T05:53:24","modified_gmt":"2013-10-17T09:53:24","slug":"washington-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dougsbriefcase.com\/blog\/washington-well\/","title":{"rendered":"In Washington, All Is Well"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

\"The<\/a>

The faces of Con\u00adgres\u00adsion\u00adal lead\u00aders are hard\u00adly etched with joy, but they did man\u00adage to avert a fis\u00adcal cri\u00adsis, even if only for a few months. [Cred\u00adit: Bloomberg]<\/p><\/div>Octo\u00adber 16, 2013, 6:00 am<\/em>\n

All is well in Wash\u00ading\u00adton. The gov\u00adern\u00adment is spend\u00ading and bor\u00adrow\u00ading again.<\/p>\n

The Pres\u00adi\u00addent last night signed a bill<\/a> to reopen the gov\u00adern\u00adment through mid-Jan\u00adu\u00adary and tem\u00adporar\u00adi\u00adly increase its bor\u00adrow\u00ading author\u00adi\u00adty. The mea\u00adsure that rushed through the House and Sen\u00adate last evening dif\u00adfered in some crit\u00adi\u00adcal respects from the ten\u00adta\u00adtive deal that I described in Tues\u00adday morning\u2019s blog<\/a>. It dropped a pro\u00advi\u00adsion sought by labor unions that would have delayed an assess\u00adment on every\u00adone with group health insur\u00adance cov\u00ader\u00adage, but includ\u00aded a watered-down ver\u00adsion of Repub\u00adli\u00adcan-backed lan\u00adguage to require the gov\u00adern\u00adment to be more care\u00adful in deter\u00admin\u00ading eli\u00adgi\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty for Med\u00adic\u00adaid and new health insur\u00adance subsidies.<\/p>\n

The income ver\u00adi\u00adfi\u00adca\u00adtion pro\u00advi\u00adsion, nev\u00ader real\u00adly work\u00adable in its orig\u00adi\u00adnal form, now mere\u00adly requires HHS<\/span> Sec\u00adre\u00adtary Kath\u00adleen Sebe\u00adlius to \u201ccer\u00adti\u00adfy to the Con\u00adgress that the exchanges ver\u00adi\u00adfy eli\u00adgi\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty [for Med\u00adic\u00adaid and pre\u00admi\u00adum sub\u00adsi\u00addies] con\u00adsis\u00adtent with the require\u00adments\u201d of the Oba\u00admacare law. Since Sec\u00adre\u00adtary Sebe\u00adlius already claims to be com\u00adply\u00ading with that law, it is hard to see how this new stip\u00adu\u00adla\u00adtion will have any real effect.<\/p>\n

The orig\u00adi\u00adnal ver\u00adsion<\/a> would have pro\u00adhib\u00adit\u00aded the gov\u00adern\u00adment from pay\u00ading out any sub\u00adsi\u00addies until the HHS<\/span> Inspec\u00adtor Gen\u00ader\u00adal deter\u00admined that the depart\u00adment had \u201cin place a pro\u00adgram that suc\u00adcess\u00adful\u00adly and con\u00adsis\u00adtent\u00adly ver\u00adi\u00adfies \u2026 the house\u00adhold income\u201d of applicants.<\/p>\n

Such a cer\u00adti\u00adfi\u00adca\u00adtion, though much stronger than what was enact\u00aded, would have had few real world impli\u00adca\u00adtions. The exchanges are strug\u00adgling to exe\u00adcute their most rudi\u00admen\u00adta\u00adry task: enrolling peo\u00adple in health insur\u00adance cov\u00ader\u00adage. The Delaware State News<\/a> ear\u00adli\u00ader this week recount\u00aded the sto\u00adry of Jan\u00adice Bak\u00ader, a 59-year old dog ken\u00adnel own\u00ader who report\u00aded\u00adly became the state\u2019s first Oba\u00admacare enrollee. Bak\u00ader, who is hap\u00adpy with her new cov\u00ader\u00adage, spent a total of 7 hours to com\u00adplete the process. That includ\u00aded two attempts to enroll online from her home com\u00adput\u00ader and two 90-minute con\u00adver\u00adsa\u00adtions with online assis\u00adtance, both of which end\u00aded in the gov\u00adern\u00adment representative\u2019s com\u00adput\u00ader crash\u00ading. It requires enor\u00admous faith in gov\u00adern\u00adment com\u00adpe\u00adtence to believe that the exchanges can man\u00adage the addi\u00adtion\u00adal bur\u00adden of metic\u00adu\u00adlous\u00adly doc\u00adu\u00adment\u00ading each applicant\u2019s eli\u00adgi\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty for subsidies.<\/p>\n

The $63 annu\u00adal assess\u00adment on the rough\u00adly 159 mil\u00adlion peo\u00adple who are cov\u00adered under employ\u00ader-spon\u00adsored plans will go for\u00adward on Jan\u00adu\u00adary 1, despite a vig\u00ador\u00adous effort by labor unions to have it delayed. The assess\u00adment will raise $10 bil\u00adlion from peo\u00adple who do not get cov\u00ader\u00adage through the new exchanges to sub\u00adsi\u00addize the cov\u00ader\u00adage of the esti\u00admat\u00aded 7 mil\u00adlion peo\u00adple who will.<\/p>\n

That $10 bil\u00adlion is a crit\u00adi\u00adcal life\u00adline for insur\u00aders who have agreed to sell through the exchanges. When I wrote on Tues\u00adday, press accounts were unclear on whether Sen\u00ada\u00adtors had ten\u00adta\u00adtive\u00adly agreed to put off that $10 bil\u00adlion pay\u00adment, some\u00adthing that would have dealt a seri\u00adous blow to the suc\u00adcess of the new health insur\u00adance exchanges. As it lat\u00ader turned out, they had only agreed to post\u00adpone the $63 assess\u00adment, allow\u00ading health insur\u00aders that sell through the exchanges to get their $10 bil\u00adlion any\u00adway. Trea\u00adsury would sim\u00adply have bor\u00adrowed the mon\u00adey, increas\u00ading next year\u2019s deficit by $10 bil\u00adlion. The pro\u00advi\u00adsion, in any event, did not survive.<\/p>\n

The imme\u00addi\u00adate cri\u00adsis avert\u00aded, Con\u00adgres\u00adsion\u00adal Repub\u00adli\u00adcans will now seek to recov\u00ader from their self-inflict\u00aded wounds. Their ill-con\u00adceived strat\u00ade\u00adgy of seek\u00ading to \u201cdefund\u201d Oba\u00admacare pro\u00adduced only a require\u00adment that the HHS<\/span> Sec\u00adre\u00adtary, in dol\u00ading out hun\u00addreds of bil\u00adlions of dol\u00adlars in gov\u00adern\u00adment health care sub\u00adsi\u00addies, pledge to adhere to the very law that Repub\u00adli\u00adcans had set out to scuttle.<\/p>\n

For the Pres\u00adi\u00addent, this is what pass\u00ades for vic\u00adto\u00adry: the gov\u00adern\u00adment will reopen for three months and can con\u00adtin\u00adue bor\u00adrow\u00ading at least through ear\u00adly Feb\u00adru\u00adary and prob\u00ada\u00adbly until some\u00adtime in March. Hard\u00adly the stuff of his\u00adto\u00adry, but giv\u00aden his stum\u00adbles this year on gun con\u00adtrol, immi\u00adgra\u00adtion, scan\u00addals at the NSA<\/span> and IRS<\/span>, the inaus\u00adpi\u00adcious launch of the new health care law, and his on-again, off-again threat to bomb Syr\u00adia, this marks the high point of his sec\u00adond term. Call it the soft big\u00adotry of low expectations.<\/p>\n

Mean\u00adwhile, House and Sen\u00adate bud\u00adget nego\u00adtia\u00adtors will spend the next cou\u00adple of months seek\u00ading an accord that would pro\u00advide sta\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty and order to the government\u2019s fis\u00adcal affairs.<\/p>\n

One can only wish them godspeed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Octo\u00adber 16, 2013, 6:00 am All is well in Wash\u00ading\u00adton. The gov\u00adern\u00adment is spend\u00ading and bor\u00adrow\u00ading again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"nfd_image_url":"","nfd_onboarding_generated":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[481,479,375,12,482,480,124,13],"tags":[186,643,483,637,624,646,69,623,162,644,1184,47,1188,645],"class_list":["post-1483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-appropriations","category-budget","category-congress","category-debt-ceiling","category-government-shutdown","category-government-spending-2","category-obamacare","category-sequestration","tag-boehner","tag-continuing-resolution","tag-debt-ceiling-2","tag-debt-limit","tag-defund-obamacare","tag-delaware-state-news","tag-health-exchanges","tag-health-insurance-exchanges","tag-kathleen-sebelius","tag-mcconnell","tag-medicaid","tag-obama","tag-obamacare","tag-reid"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t