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   ||||| WASHINGTON -- Some progressive organizations have been making a push in recent days for incoming congressional Republicans to drop their government-sponsored health care on the grounds that keeping the plans would be hypocritical. 
   
   The incident started after incoming Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) complained loudly during freshmen orientation that his coverage wouldn't start immediately upon taking office. It took a new turn when Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Penn) and Bobby Schilling (R-Ill.) both said they would, in fact, forgo the coverage. It escalated even further when White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs called out Harris for the "irony," and the municipal workers union AFSCME applied a similar charge to the whole GOP shortly thereafter. 
   
   "These Republicans want to repeal health reform, putting the insurance companies back in charge and putting affordable coverage out of reach of millions of Americans," said AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee. "If they enroll in the taxpayer-funded health care system provided to members of Congress, they deserve to be denounced as hypocrites." 
   
   There is an apparent double standard with respect to lawmakers trying to reduce health care for American workers while taking a subsidy for health care for themselves. And in a Public Policy Poll released on Tuesday, a full 53 percent of respondents (and 58 percent of Republicans) said that if a congressman is opposed to the president's health care reform law, he or she should decline to participate in government-sponsored health care. 
   
   But another cudgel sits there on the sidelines waiting to be used by trouble-making Democrats. If the incoming Republican Congress is so concerned about the use of taxpayer funds, it could start by foregoing taxpayer-funded health care. How much money that would save is impossible to pinpoint with great accuracy. But it's possible to make some reliable estimates. 
   
   According to the Los Angeles Times, "the plan most favored by federal workers is Blue Cross Blue Shield, which covers a family for about $1,030 a month." Of that total, "taxpayers kick in $700." So far there are 242 Republicans set to be seated in the incoming House of Representatives (that could only go higher) and 47 Republicans in the Senate. The taxpayer bill for insuring all those members over the course of a single year comes to just over $2.4 million ($700 X 12 months X 289 members). 
   
   Chump change? Yes, it is. That said, chump change seems to always at the heart of the most provocative political battles. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) made a big issue over the fact that $1 million was being appropriated for a Woodstock museum in upstate New York. 
   
   UPDATE: Pete Sepp, the Executive Vice President of National Taxpayers Union -- one of the ultimate penny-pinching organizations in the D.C. area -- calls opting out of health care a "symbolic and not insignificant" gesture for congressional Republicans. 
   
   "If lawmakers are looking for ways to say that they feel solidarity with the American people this might be one way to do it," said Sepp. "And, again, if you are looking at dollar amounts that's equivalent or a little more of equivalent to [congressmembers] taking a pay cut of about five percent. And, again, we have heard a lot of pledges to reduce the overall budget of Congress by ten percent. So opting out of health care coverage is one place to start." ||||| One of the country’s largest labor unions has demanded Republican lawmakers skip congressional health insurance because the party voted against the health-care overhaul. 
   
   The argument: If you don’t support government health care, you shouldn’t enroll in government health care, says the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. 
   
   “These Republicans want to repeal health reform, putting the insurance companies back in charge and putting affordable coverage out of reach of millions of Americans,” AFSCME President Gerald McEntee said in a statement. 
   
   It’s a bit more complicated than that. The debate over the health overhaul largely centered over how much Washington should get involved in health insurance for those employed in the private sector. 
   
   Lawmakers, by contrast, take home a salary from the federal government. Most House members get $174,000 a year. 
   
   “This has nothing to with ObamaCare,” said Michael Steel, spokesman for presumptive House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio). “Boehner, like Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi, Sen. [Harry] Reid and tens of millions of Americans, receives health coverage through his employer.” 
   
   Still, the issue has become a rallying cry for liberal activists after GOP Congressman-elect Andy Harris, a doctor from Maryland, complained he would have to wait four weeks until his new insurance took effect. The White House got involved this week when Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Mr. Harris faces a “particularly interesting dilemma.” 
   
   Incoming GOP Rep. Bobby Schilling of Illinois said during his campaign he wouldn’t take health insurance as a congressman in an effort to save taxpayers money. His son and spokesman, Terry Schilling, said the decision had nothing to do with the health-care law.
target: – Progressives are issuing a challenge to incoming Republican House members: If they are so dead-set on repealing health care reform, they shouldn't accept the taxpayer-funded congressional health plan. The fracas started when newly elected Rep. Andy Harris made a fuss during an orientation because his coverage didn't begin right away, notes the Huffington Post. If all Congressional Republicans declined, it would save an estimated $2.4 million. "Chump change? Yes, it is," writes Sam Stein at HuffPo. "That said, chump change seems to always at the heart of the most provocative political battles." Others: The issue may be opening for Democrats to "create tension between the newly elected officials and the Tea Partiers who put them there by highlighting the disconnect between the freshmen Republicans' rhetoric and their actions," writes Tom Jensen for Public Policy Polling. Republicans, however, say Democrats are distorting the issue—they want employer-based coverage to be the dominant system, and members of Congress are employed by the government, notes the Wall Street Journal. "Still, the issue has become a rallying cry for liberal activists," writes Danny Yadron.