Boehner has personally lobbied the president for help in protecting subsidies for Hill staff. Boehner's fight for Hill subsidies

With the federal government nearing shutdown, House Speaker John Boehner stood on the House floor Monday and called on his colleagues to vote for a bill banning a “so-called exemption” that lawmakers and staffers receive for their health insurance.

“Why don’t we make sure that every American is treated just like we are?” Boehner asked, seeking to prohibit members of Congress and Capitol Hill aides from getting thousands of dollars in subsidies for their health insurance as they join Obamacare-mandated insurance exchanges.


Yet behind-the-scenes, Boehner and his aides worked for months with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), and others, to save these very same, long-standing subsidies, according to documents and e-mails provided to POLITICO. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was also aware of these discussions, the documents show.

( Understanding Obamacare: POLITICO's Guide to the Affordable Care Act)

During a five-month period stretching from February to July, Boehner and his aides sought along with Reid’s office to solve what had become a big headache for both of them. They drafted and reviewed a possible legislative fix, as well as continued to push for an administrative one from the Office of Personnel Management.

Boehner aides insist there was never any intention to move legislation through the House to correct the problem. McConnell was also opposed to any legislation approach to the controversy, said spokesman Don Stewart.

Boehner and Reid, however, went so far as to ask to meet with President Barack Obama to lobby him personally for help — using a cover story in order to protect the secrecy of the discussions, according to these documents.

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Although the Oval Office session with Obama never came off, a senior Boehner aide spoke directly to White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough about the speaker’s desire to retain the employer contribution for lawmakers and staff.

The issue of whether lawmakers and staff will continue to receive the employer contribution from the federal government — estimated at between $5,000 to $12,000 annually — has become political kryptonite on Capitol Hill. As part of the Affordable Care Act, lawmakers and aides are required to join insurance exchanges that begin operating on Tuesday, the same day the government shut down.

( WATCH: How media covered government shutdown)

OPM initially ruled that lawmakers and staffers couldn’t receive the subsidies once they went into the exchanges. This caused an uproar in Congress, since lawmakers and aides were going to be treated differently than millions of Americans who receive these same subsidies from their employers. Lawmakers and aides argued they weren’t seeking special treatment, but a level playing field with everyone else.

Under heavy pressure from Hill Democrats, Obama and top White House aides got personally involved in the dispute. OPM then reversed course and issued a regulation saying the subsidies would go on.

Boehner, however, injected the issue into the government-shutdown debate by attaching a measure to end the subsidies to a House GOP funding bill, which Senate Democrats adamantly oppose.

Boehner’s aides vehemently deny that the speaker’s private efforts contradict his public statements on the issue. They insist Democrats were the ones who enacted Obamacare and it is up to them to address the problem. Boehner said the White House should correct the problem though through an administrative solution, stating that no bill to do so could pass Congress.

( WATCH: Rep. Larson's passionate floor speech)

“We always made it clear that the House would not pass any legislative ‘fix,’” said Michael Steel, Boehner’s spokesman, on Monday night.

“As POLITICO has previously reported, Speaker Boehner was aware that Sen. Reid and the White House were discussing this issue. He was always clear, however, that any ‘fix’ would be a Democratic ‘fix.’ His ‘fix’ is repealing” Obamacare.

But according to several sources in attendance at a mid-July meeting with Reid, Boehner wondered aloud at one point whether he and the Nevada Democrat could quietly slip some language into a bill to end the problem without it receiving any public attention.

( WATCH: Jim VandeHei on shutdown state of play before Obama, Boehner meeting)

“When I was in the state legislature, we used to stick things in [bills] and no one would notice,” Boehner said during a private meeting with Reid in July to discuss this issue, the sources said.

Boehner’s aides then told him this would not be possible, so the idea was dropped.

The speaker and his chief of staff, Mike Sommers — who was at that July 17 meeting as well — cannot “recall the Speaker making such a comment,” Boehner’s office said.

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In mid-July, as Boehner and Reid were trying to schedule a private meeting with Obama on the super-sensitive topic, the speaker’s top aide said it was okay to use a cover story to conceal the true nature of that prospective White House gathering.

“We can’t let it get out there that this is for [Boehner] and [Reid] to ask the President to carve us out of the requirement of Obamacare,” Sommers told David Krone, Reid’s top aide in a July 17 e-mail obtained by POLITICO.

“This is a little bit more difficult because it isn’t a routine meeting, as [Nancy] Pelosi and [Mitch] McConnell won’t be there. I am even ok if it is the President hauling us down to talk about the next steps on immigration.”

After Krone suggested that the White House press office might float that the Boehner-Reid-Obama meeting was on immigration, Sommers said he wasn’t concerned about what cover story was just as long as the real reason behind the meeting wasn’t disclosed.

“I really don’t care what is is about[,] it just can’t be about what we know it is about!” Sommers told Krone.

That meeting with Obama never took place.

Boehner and Reid’s offices also circulated some draft legislation to fix the problem, although none was ever introduced. They considered — briefly and “not seriously,” according to the speaker’s office — making all House staffers part of the “Committee of the Whole” in order to get around the insurance-exchange requirement. Committee staffers were not required to enroll in exchanges.

Boehner and Reid’s staffers also discussed “grandfathering” all members of Congress into the Federal Employee Benefit Health Plan, their current insurance program, so they didn’t have to enroll in the Obamacare exchanges. That idea was eventually dropped as well.

Boehner’s office said the leak of private e-mails to POLITICO shows how concerned Democrats are about the matter.

“Any emails from Mr. Sommers will reflect the Speaker’s position: he voted against ObamaCare, and he wants to repeal ObamaCare,” Steel said. “If the Senate Democrats and the White House want to make a ‘fix’ to the law, it would be their fix. The Speaker’s ‘fix’ is repeal. This is just a desperate act by Harry Reid’s staff to protect their own subsidy.”

When asked to comment on the Reid-Boehner interaction on the hugely controversial issue, a Reid aide said the Nevada Democrat worked closely with Boehner on it and was grateful for his help in resolving the matter.

“Senator Reid appreciates Speaker Boehner’s cooperation and tireless efforts to work through this difficult issue,” said Adam Jentleson, Reid’s communications director.

The topic of lawmakers’ health care has gotten only more intense since OPM’s regulation was released. Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) recently introduced legislation to block the subsidies, a move that infuriated Democrats. On the House side, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) offered similar legislation.

Boehner and his top lieutenants — Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) — wanted to attach a provision to prohibit lawmakers, staffers and executive-branch officials to a debt-ceiling bill. A group of Boehner’s House GOP allies went privately to the speaker to complain about the move, saying it would hurt them and especially their staffers.

But as they struggled to move successive continuing resolutions to fund the government, Boehner decided to attach the McCaul language to a government funding bill on Monday night. The measure passed the House with 12 Republicans voting against it. The Senate then quickly rejected it on a 54-46 party-line vote.