I just watched the rebroadcast of tonight's edition of CNN's Crossfire, and I'm completely puzzled about something. At the very end of the program, the hosts asked Tom Coburn and Debbie Stabenow whether they were going to keep their pay, or donate it to charity, given the fact that their staffers weren't getting paid. Tom Coburn immediately said that all of his staffers were working and getting paid (and also that he intended to keep his pay). Debbie Stabenow said that 80% of her staffers had unfortunately been furloughed. (I don't remember what she said about keeping her salary, since I was so stunned about the difference in what they said about their staffers.)
Tom Coburn and Debbie Stabenow are both Senators. How in the HELL is it possible that all of his staffers are working, and 80% of hers have been furloughed? Does each individual member of Congress get to decide whether their staffers are "essential?" There is a definition of which employees are "essential," and that's those whose work is essential to the protection of national security, public safety, protection of federal property, or to the administration of compulsory benefit programs (such as Social Security). (That's from memory, but it's the basic definition.) There is absolutely no way that all of the staffers of ANY Senator or Congressman fit that definition. And there is CERTAINLY no way that 100% of the staffers of one Senator are "essential" and only 20% of the staffers of another Senator are "essential." Do we have any Congressional staffers here on Daily Kos who know for sure how this is being handled?
My hunch is that individual Senators and Representatives are deciding which of their staffers are "essential," and that Debbie Stabenow is actually following the rules, while Tom Coburn is simply thumbing his nose at them. But how are ANY of their staffers, whether deemed "essential" or not, are getting paid? Until the Congress passed the bill to pay members of the armed forces and President Obama signed it, even members of the armed forces serving in combat areas such as Afghanistan weren't going to be paid. I have friends working in the Justice Department, and they aren't being paid. But somehow, Coburn manages to finagle things to get his staffers paid? How the HELL is that possible?
Of course, it's also possible that Coburn was simply lying. He was CERTAINLY lying on the same program, when he claimed that if you signed up for one of the insurance programs through the Exchanges, you'd never get to see the same doctor. Even though I'm happy with my present insurance, I checked today, and my primary care doctor is participating in most of the insurance programs on the Maryland exchange. I also regularly see a nephrologist, and she is participating in even more of the programs on the Maryland exchange than my primary care physician is. But Coburn sits there and pretends that since he's a doctor, and once actually practiced medicine, he KNOWS these things. I never had much respect for Coburn, but he's gone from the category of being a politician that I think is pretty much worthless to somewhere below the level of pond scum when he, as a physician, seeks to scare people who need health insurance out of signing up for it.