Is Congress Trying to Exempt Itself From Obamacare?
...First, this is, in fact, about exempting themselves from Obamacare. This is a provision of Obamacare. It is in the bill. You may think that it shouldn't be in the bill, or that it shouldn't be in the bill in the way that it's written. But--assuming that these discussions are actually happening--Congress is considering exempting itself from the one provision of the bill that actually directly affects Congress. As far as they're concerned, this is exempting themselves from Obamacare; the rest of the bill affects Hill staffers only indirectly.

Furthermore, this exemption is important. There are very good reasons to require Congress to "eat their own cooking", especially on a big bill like this. At least one source in the Politico article says that they're considering junking this provision entirely and moving Congress and staffers back to the federal employee benefits system. This would be good for them, but bad for the rest of us, and they should be ashamed to even consider it.

The second point I'd make is that there seems to be a growing consensus among Obamacare's supporters that all problems with the law are due to either Republican opposition, or "drafting errors". No tax subsidies in the bill for federal exchanges? Drafting error. Implementation running behind? Don't blame HHS, blame Republicans. You would think that the PPACA had delegated responsibility for implementation to the Republican National Committee, rather than the Department of Health and Human Services.

Opponents have long been saying that the bill was basically one long drafting error, and now its supporters seem to be suggesting that they're right. Have we now arrived at a point where the optimistic case for the bill that was an incredibly sloppy first draft that obviously required the active cooperation of the opposition to make it work? And if so, has this made anyone question the wisdom of passing it in the first place? If you want to get to the other side of a deep ravine, and the only way to do so is to ride a unicycle across a tightrope while juggling burning torches, maybe it's time to rethink your goal. And if you decide to go ahead, you probably shouldn't blame anyone else if you go down in flames....