Posted on 11/16/2011 10:07:43 AM PST by Qbert
Even if ObamaCare survives Supreme Court scrutiny next spring, its trials will be far from over. That's because the law has a major glitch that threatens its basic functioning. It's so problematic, in fact, that the Obama administration is now brazenly trying to rewrite the law without involving Congress.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act offers "premium assistance"—tax credits and subsidies—to households purchasing coverage through new health-insurance exchanges. This assistance was designed to hide a portion of the law's cost to individuals by reducing the premium hikes that individuals will face after ObamaCare goes into effect in 2014. (If consumers face the law's full cost, support for repeal will grow.)
The law encourages states to create health-insurance exchanges, but it permits Washington to create them if states decline. So far, only 17 states have passed legislation to create an exchange.
This is where the glitch comes in: ObamaCare authorizes premium assistance in state-run exchanges (Section 1311) but not federal ones (Section 1321). In other words, states that refuse to create an exchange can block much of ObamaCare's spending and practically force Congress to reopen the law for revisions.
The Obama administration wants to avoid that legislative debacle, so this summer it proposed an IRS rule to offer premium assistance in all exchanges "whether established under section 1311 or 1321." On Nov. 17 the IRS will hold a public hearing on that proposal. According to a Treasury Department spokeswoman, the administration is "confident" that offering premium assistance where Congress has not authorized it "is consistent with the intent of the law and our ability to interpret and implement it."
Such confidence is misplaced. The text of the law is perfectly clear. And without congressional authorization, the IRS lacks the power to dispense tax credits or spend money.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Legislate in haste..repeal at leisure..
Jail time! This administration needs jail time!
Pfffft... laws! This is the Obama administration, the one they were waiting for!
They don’t pay any attention to the constitution. Obama does what he wants, and the media puppets remain silent.
Boyoboy...doesn’t this bunch of arrogant twits, left-wing policy wonks, assorted socialists, wanker hangers-on, dewy-eyed media cheerleaders and pushy, know-it-all legislators who are all responsible for this problem nightmare legislation deserve this BIG time?
Anybody here expect congress to stop him? Not gonna happen with a crybaby drunk and a smiling moron and a deal maker as the so called republican leadership in the house and senate.
Did someone burn our Constitution without telling anyone?
” ...doesn’t this bunch of arrogant twits, left-wing policy wonks, assorted socialists, wanker hangers-on, dewy-eyed media cheerleaders and pushy, know-it-all legislators who are all responsible for this problem nightmare legislation deserve this BIG time? “
They might deserve it, but we sure don’t...
We have not beenat all well served by our “gotta pass it to find out what’s in it”, “Constitution - you’ve got to be kidding!!”, representatives....
Well, they certainly followed Nancy’s advice, pass it to see what’s in it.
And we are still finding out what is in it.
There is no reason for any democRat to be re-elected.
—the IRS lacks the power to dispense tax credits or spend money.—
From what I understand, the IRS is like the police department. They don’t write the laws. They just enforce them.
Sorry if I wasn’t clear—I meant that they deserved the present PROBLEMS their sloppiness and haste caused.
Unfortunately true.
They need to be primaried.
I have a dream of seeing both adults living in the WH being escourted out both in handcuffs.
” the IRS is like the police department. They don’t write the laws. They just enforce them. “
Not quite - the IRS is a FEDERAL AGENCY, charged with promulgating and enforcing regulations to implement legislation passed by Congress...
So far so good —
But, the fly in the ointment is that the fashion in Congressional legislation (especially tax legislation) is to be so vague and full of internal contradictions (hence - “gotta pass it to find out what’s in it”..) that the FEDERAL AGENCIES have virutal carte-blanche to make law as they go along, without those pesky burdens of accountability, oversight, due process, or, in many cases, judicial remedy....
Granted, most FEDERAL AGENCIES now incorporate their own policing arms, (I heard, a while ago, that HUD has a large SWAT Team) but those entities share in the relatively immune umbrella of their parent outfits, rather than the rather more stringent constraints imposed, however unevenly, on their traditional Law Enforcement bretheren....
We don't need no stinking Congressional authorization!
Exactly. As Mark Levin said the other day, we now live in a post-constitutional era.
The PPACA is one of the biggest cluster%#@$s in the history of the world.
I have a dream of seeing both adults living in the WH being escourted out both in handcuffs
It would be justice for a change!
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