DEFUNDING OBAMACARE: QUESTIONS & ANSWERS, EXCUSES & RESPONSES
RUSS VOUGHT | JULY 12, 2013
POLICY AND TECHNICAL
“What do you mean by defunding Obamacare?”
Defunding Obamacare means attaching a legislative rider to a “must pass”
bill (debt limit, annual spending bill, etc.) that 1) prohibits any
funds from being spent on any activities to implement or enforce
Obamacare; 2) rescinds any unspent balances that have already been
appropriated for implementation; and 3) turns off the exchange subsidy
and new Medicaid spending that are on auto-pilot.
“There is no such thing as defunding Obamacare.”
That
is a false statement. Congressmen who assert this are either asserting
that funding is not being spent to implement Obamacare (false) or that a
defund amendment cannot technically be executed (again, false).
Defunding Obamacare can be done, and it has been attempted by the House
of Representatives recently. For instance, in 2011, after gaining the
majority, the Republican House included such a defunding provision on
the continuing spending resolution (HR 1) when the bill first passed the
House. The provision was later discarded in negotiations with the
President and the Senate, but the effort began with promise.
“What is the urgency to defund Obamacare now?”
On January 1, 2014, Obamacare’s new main entitlements—the Medicaid expansion and the exchange subsidies—are scheduled to take effect. Open enrollment for both programs begins on October 1, 2013,
at the start of the new fiscal year. According to the Congressional
Budget Office (CBO), the federal government will spend $48 billion in
2014—and nearly $1.8 trillion through 2023—on these new entitlement
programs. Also on January 1, Americans will
be forced by their government to buy a product—health insurance—for the
first time ever. Individuals and families who don’t comply will be
penalized by tax penalties administered through the Internal Revenue
Service (IRS). The Obama Administration has requested over $400 million
in funding and nearly 2,000 bureaucrats for the IRS to implement the
individual mandate and 46 other statutory provisions in the law. Within
the Administration, the blizzard of Obamacare rules and regulations
continues apace. Regulators have now written over 20,000 pages of
Obamacare-related rules and notices in the Federal Register. Many of
these regulations will increase the cost of insurance; CBO concluded
Obamacare would raise individual health insurance premiums by $2,100 per
year.
“Isn’t
defunding Obamacare impossible because most of the funding is
‘mandatory’ (or on ‘auto-pilot’) and cannot be amended via the annual
appropriations process?”
No. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS),
the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the IRS, “will
incur substantial administrative costs to implement the law’s private
insurance reforms and its changes to the federal health care programs.”
And while Obamacare provided $1 billion in mandatory implementation
funding when it was enacted, HHS projects that this is largely spent. According to CRS, Obamacare “administrative costs will have to be funded through the annual discretionary appropriations.”
Furthermore, annual appropriations bills routinely carry funding
limitations to block all sorts of activities (for example, the Hyde
Amendment), as well make changes to mandatory spending. These latter
provisions are called “changes in mandatory program spending” (CHIMPS).
Even if these riders were not so common-place, the stakes of so many
provisions of Obamacare scheduled to take effect would present grounds
for an exception.
“Isn’t
defunding impossible because there is not a specific funding stream for
Obamacare? Funding is embedded throughout the federal government and
not specifically designated.”
No. Congress is aware of
all of the programs that fund Obamacare because CRS has provided such a
list and the Appropriations Committees are well-versed in the funding
intricacies of the law. However, a blanket prohibition against funding
all activities associated with implementing the law is all that is
needed to halt implementation. Each program does not have to be
specifically defunded.
POLITICAL AND STRATEGIC
“My Congressman supports repealing Obamacare but not defund….”
It
is wonderful that Congressmen support repealing Obamacare, but it’s not
enough. The House has had numerous votes to repeal Obamacare, but the
chances of statutorily repealing the law decreased once President Obama
won a second term. Conservatives cannot wait another three-and-a-half
years to begin dismantling Obamacare; they need to leverage current
opportunities to defund Obamacare on “must-pass” spending bills.
“Since Obamacare is the
President’s ‘signature achievement’ won’t he veto any effort to defund
the program? Why should conservatives make this the focus of their
anti-Obamacare efforts?”
There is a critical window of opportunity to stop the flow of funding for Obamacare from now until October 1, 2013,
when the new fiscal year begins. It is during the same window that the
President and Congress must pass bills to fund the government for the
coming year. It is entirely appropriate for conservative members of
Congress to use this opportunity to say, “No more funding for
Obamacare!” and wage a serious and determined fight. If the Republican
House girds for this fight—and wins the national argument with the
urgency coming from a number of scheduled implementation dates and the
law’s rising unpopularity—President Obama will be forced to compromise.
“If you don’t have the votes for a statutory repeal, why would you think you can get the votes to defund Obamacare?”
The
Constitution grants the House of Representatives the ultimate “power of
the purse.” If Congress chooses not to fund Obamacare activities for
the upcoming fiscal year, the Obama Administration cannot act to
implement the law. The President’s party does not control the House of
Representatives, which must originate debt limit and spending bills to
fund the government. And the House Republican Majority was elected in
2010, on the basis of its platform against Obamacare.
“Won’t adding a provision to defund Obamacare to a ‘must-pass’ appropriations bill lead to a government shutdown?”
Obviously,
this will set up a major political confrontation with President Obama,
but it is the sort of conflict that will allow conservatives in the
House of Representatives to remind the American people that the worst
aspects of Obamacare are about to take hold and a defunding rider is the
only thing standing in the way.
If
House Republicans insist on defunding Obamacare, it is possible that
the Obama Administration will shut the government down. This would not
be the end of the world, and it needs to be an option. President
Clinton shut the government down in 1995, by refusing to sign
legislation to fund the government. While most pundits in Washington DC
believe that this was a catastrophic political failure for Republicans,
it is a fact that the House Republicans maintained their majority in
1996, even with a popular president of another party on the ticket. And
their willingness to not accept all of Clinton’s demands was crucial
towards eventually balancing the budget and reforming welfare. The nation can no longer afford for conservatives to leave political leverage on the table.
“Shouldn’t
Obamacare opponents focus instead on repealing pieces of the law where
there is bipartisan support—for example, the medical device tax or the
IPAB—in order to reinforce the fact that Obamacare is not set in stone
and make its supporters take hard votes?”
Washington
is filled with special interest groups lobbying everyday to secure a
“fix” for the part of Obamacare that affects their industry. There is
no “fix” for this law and every time Congress caves to a special
interest and makes the law “better” for that group, a little less
momentum exists for full and final defunding or repeal. “Fix” votes
also give Obamacare supporters every opportunity to appear reasonable
and willing to fix the worst excesses of the law. The grim reality is
that if the opponents of Obamacare are not willing to use every bit of
political leverage at their disposal—a Republican majority in the House
of Representatives, mostly made up of Congressmen from safe seats with
constituents who strongly object to Obamacare—to halt implementation of
the law, then it will be set in stone. There is simply no more time,
particularly as the massive exchange subsidies are made available and
the Medicaid expansion takes effect.
Respectfully,
Rick Crain
Nevada State Coordinator TEA Party Patriots
Founder and Past President Mesquite TEA Party
Nevada State Coordinator TEA Party Patriots
Founder and Past President Mesquite TEA Party
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