The U.S. House this week voted to repeal Obamacare, a move that even attracted support from some Democrats, but there’s more that can be done to relieve Americans of the burden of Barack Obama’s strategy to impose one of the largest tax hikes in American history, members of Congress say.
That would be a simple refusal to appropriate money to set up the programs Obamacare needs to function.
That’s according to a letter being circulated by Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and Tea Party Caucus Chairman Michele Bachmann.
They are urging members of the House to sign onto the letter “urging our leadership to defund the implementation of Obamacare” by noon on Friday.
The letter is addressed to House Speaker John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.
It explains, “We are outraged by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to rewrite and largely uphold the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”), as we know you are as well. And we know that our sentiments are in line with the vast majority of Americans who believe that healthcare should be controlled by patients and doctors, not by the government.”
The letter continues, “We appreciate your willingness to schedule a vote on the full repeal of Obamacare. We should continue efforts to repeal the law in its entirety this year, next year, and until we are successful. However, in the meantime, there is more we can do in Congress.”
The letter points out that “much of the implementation of Obamacare is a function of the discretionary appropriations process” and that “most of the citizens we represent believe that Obamacare should never go into effect.”
“We urge you not to bring to the House floor in the 112th Congress any legislation that provides or allows funds to implement Obamacare through the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Health and Human Services, or any other federal entity. We also urge you to take legislative steps necessary to immediately rescind all Obamacare-implementation funds,” the letter suggests.
Quoting Federalist No. 58, the letter cites James Madison’s comment that the “power over the purse may, in fact, be regarded as the most complete and effectual weapon … for obtaining a redress of every grievance…”
Dozens of names already have been posted on the letter, and organizers are hoping to add many more before the Friday deadline at which time it is expected to be forwarded to the House leadership.
Bachmann said after the vote to repeal, which is not expected to be duplicated in the Democrat-controlled Senate at this time, “It’s been two years since President Obama signed into law one of the most expensive and invasive pieces of legislation in the history of the United States. More and more we are seeing what then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi meant when she said the bill would have to pass in order for us to figure out what was in it. The more we learn about the scope and reach of Obamacare, the clearer it becomes that it isn’t about ‘affordable care’ – it is about bureaucratic control.”
She said, “For the first time in American history, the federal government is forcing citizens to purchase a private product simply because they breathe, and then will penalize them if they refuse to comply. The 20 new or higher taxes within Obamacare punish companies and individuals of all income levels, despite this administration’s promises otherwise. And an expanding IRS plans to enforce more than 12,000 pages of new regulations. Americans should not have to make their healthcare decisions out of fear of being intimidated by the IRS.”
The House vote was widely applauded by groups that have analyzed the legislation and found it constitutionally suspect. According to one such group, Liberty Counsel Action, the House determined that for individuals buying their own private health coverage will cost an additional $2,100 in 2016, Medicare recipients will lose more than half a trillion dollars in benefits, and medical treatment decisions will be made by the Independent Payment Advisory Board, not doctors and patients.
The Liberty Counsel Action report also said there are 21 new or higher taxes and millions of Americans will be forced by the government to violate their strongly held religious beliefs and pay for abortion services.
“Obamacare is the biggest power-grab by the federal government in our lifetimes,” said Mat Staver, chairman of the organization. “It expands government control over health care, adds trillions of dollars to our debt, drives up healthcare costs, and puts healthcare decisions in the hands of bureaucrats, instead of doctors and patients. Additional, Obamacare is the largest funding of abortion in history.”
The U.S. Supreme Court, on the deciding vote of Chief Justice John Roberts, decided to call Obamacare a tax instead of a penalty, as the Obama administration had argued, and determined it was constitutional on that basis.
