Courtney’s Conundrum

Although this is premature, it certainly is worth contemplating.  Rep. Courtney (D. Ct.) may well have a problem on his hands.

With the prospect of Republican Scott Brown winning the election in Massachusetts for that state’s vacant Senate seat, the Democrats have come up with a way to still get Obamacare passed without control of 60 seats in the Senate.  It’s simple.  As the Senate has already passed its version of Obamacare, control of the Senate is no longer necessary.  All that need be done is for the House to pass the Senate bill.

This is where Rep. Courtney enters the picture.  The Senate bill, unlike the House bill, imposes a tax on “Cadillac” insurance plans provided by employers.  Most of those ‘Cadillac” plans belong to union employees. 

Mr. Courtney wrote an opinion piece for Monday’s USA Today praising the behind closed doors deal to exempt unions from the “Cadillac” tax until 2018, and called the Senate bill a “heavy handed approach”.  Mr. Courtney’s town hall meeting on Obamacare in Woodstock, Ct. last summer was packed with SEIU members.

Now what, Mr. Courtney?  If Scott Brown is elected the only way Obamacare can get through Congress is for you, as a member of the House, to vote for the Senate bill which “heavy handidly” taxes union insurance plans.  What do you do?  Back Obama, or back the unions?