WASHINGTON – Members of Congress will not have to join the “public-option” government health plan, Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., decided Thursday night.

The proposal to subject politicians right along with the public to government-run health care was offered by U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo. He said that the reality of a public plan competing with private insurance is “that the public plan within a very short time becomes the only plan. This amendment just says that if there is a public plan, that the elected federal officials – the president, the vice president and members of Congress – would be enrolled in the public plan.” 

U.S. Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., said, “We’ve been challenged by many constituents that ‘if there’s going to be this government plan, shouldn’t you be a part of it?’ I agree with my constituents that if were going to pass this plan, we ought to put ourselves in it.”

“If this is a good plan for them,” added U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., “it ought to be good enough for us.”  And U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., called it “a put-up-or-shut-up amendment.”

The only thing Democrats put up, however, was a procedural objection. U.S. Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif., a nurse, said that since the amendment would affect the benefits of members of Congress, it was outside the jurisdiction of the committee, and Waxman upheld her with a ruling of the chair.