Federal judge rules obamacare subsidies unconstitutional

[tyroneweaver]

Federal judge rules Obamacare is being funded unconstitutionally

no comment needed on this one

 

[Sun Devil 92]

I'd love to get in a room with Josh Earnst and have a "discussion" with him about things like this.

He characterizes stuff in such a way as to insult Americans.

Lawsuites are part of how the Constitution is shaped.

He's a dick....and If I could "talk" with him....he'd need a whole lot of Viagra to function again.

 

[Sun Devil 92]

Why was Congress intially asked for an appropriation ?

Go figure ?

 

[JakeStarkey]

Sun Drivel is crying again. He needs a "safe space." OK judge stayed the order and the appeals will go up to SCOTUS where the finding will be denied. Next.

 

[waltky]

Granny always said there's a spidey inna woodpile somewheres...

How Congress Mysteriously Became a ‘Small Business’ to Qualify for Obamacare Subsides
May 12, 2016 | It seems that federal officials have worked overtime to undermine public trust. Benghazi, the IRS abuses, the “fast and furious” gun-running fiasco, the solar power boondoggles, and the seemingly endless implementation problems of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)—all these scandals have common themes: Arrogant and abusive bureaucracy, double dealing, lame excuses and legal hairsplitting.

The outrages listed above can be placed squarely at the doorstep of the White House. But one scandal is truly bipartisan: How key administration and Congressional officials connived to create, under cover of Obamacare, special health insurance subsidies for members of Congress.

Here’s how it went down.

Rushing to enact the giant Obamacare bill in March 2010, Congress voted itself out of its own employer-sponsored health insurance coverage—the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP). Section 1312(d)(3)(D) required members of Congress and staff to enroll in the new health insurance exchange system. But in pulling out of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, they also cut themselves off from their employer-based insurance contributions. (It should be noted that, before final passage, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, offered an amendment that would have provided Federal Employees Health Benefits Program subsidies for congressional enrollees in Obamacare, but Senate Democrats defeated it on a procedural vote, 56-43.)

Obamacare’s insurance subsidies for ordinary Americans are generous, but capped by income. No one with an annual income over $47,080 gets a subsidy. That’s well below typical Capitol Hill salaries. Members of Congress make $174,000 annually, and many on their staff have impressive, upper-middle-class paychecks. Maybe the lawmakers didn’t understand what they were doing, but The New York Times’ perspicacious Robert Pear certainly did. On April 12, 2010, Pear wryly wrote, “If they did not know exactly what they were doing to themselves, did lawmakers who wrote and passed the bill fully grasp the details of how it would influence the lives of other Americans?”

So, let’s follow the thickening plot:

Act One—Congress Has a Panic Attack

See also:

Court Says Administration Violated Constitution in Funding Obamacare Subsidies
May 12, 2016 | Judge Rosemary Collyer of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued an opinion today declaring that the Obama administration violated the Constitution by funding Obamacare subsidies for which Congress did not appropriate funds.

“Congress passes all federal laws in this country,” the judge wrote in her opinion in the case of U.S. House of Representatives v. Burwell. “The Court will enter judgment in favor of the House of Representatives and enjoin the use of unappropriated monies to fund reimbursements due to insurers under Section 1402,” the judge said. The opinion discussed the distinction between Section 1401 of the Affordable Care Act and Section 1402. Section 1401 provided for refundable tax credits to help cover the premiums of people who purchase health insurance on the Obamacare exchanges and who have adjusted gross incomes between 100 percent and 400 percent of the poverty level. Section 1402 provides reimbursements to insurers for lowering the “cost sharing”—i.e. deductibles, co-pays—for people who qualify under the law for such subsidies.

However, as written the Obamacare law incorporated the Section 1401 tax credits into the Internal Revenue Code, which includes language permanently funding such credits. “Put simply,” the judge said, “ACA tax credits to subsidize health insurance for eligible taxpayers are permanently funded via the reference to ‘36B’ in 31 U.S.C. 1324(b)(2).” However, the law did not make the cost-sharing subsidies of Section 1402 part of the Internal Revenue Code, and did not otherwise approve permanent appropriations for them. “Section 1402 is codified not in the Internal Revenue Code, but in Title 42, which includes federal laws concerning ‘Public Health and Welfare,’” said Judge Collyer.

Therefore, for Obamacare’s Section 1402 cost-sharing subsidies to be funded, Congress must pass appropriations funding them. “The only result of the ACA, however, is that the Section 1402 reimbursements must be funded annually,” said the judge. “Far from absurd, that is a perfectly valid means of appropriation.” “The question is whether Congress appropriated the billions of dollars that the secretaries have spent since January 2014 on Section 1402 reimbursements,” the judge said.

They have not, she determined. “Paying out Section 1402 reimbursements without an appropriation thus violates the Constitution,” the judge said. “Congress authorized reduced cost sharing but did not appropriate monies for it, in the FY 2014 budget or since. “Congress is the only source for such an appropriation, and no public money can be spent without one,” the judge said. “See U.S. Constitution Art. I, Section 9, Clause 7 (‘No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law…’). The secretaries textual and contextual arguments fail.”

MORE

 

[Manonthestreet]

Same with his green teeth..Congress did not authorize an money in this regard...

 

[Wyatt earp]

Sun Drivel is crying again. He needs a "safe space." OK judge stayed the order and the appeals will go up to SCOTUS where the finding will be denied. Next.

It won't even make it to the U.S. Supreme court, the Washington Supreme court is stacked with anti constitutional lib yards.

Just goes to show once an entitlement is law it can never be taken away, the constitution be dames. Yet the fear mongering liberals always cry the cons are going to take away the 40 hour work week child labor laws etc..

.

 

[Flanders]

Losing the war against Islam, the parasite class, tens of millions of illegal immigrants, open-borders, massive permanent unemployment, United Nations refugees, Iran, Russia, China, Communism spreading like a wildfire, and the ACA are all major crises created by Democrats.

NOTE: Manmade global warming is not a crisis because it is an environmental scam from start to finish. The media reporting manmade global warming as though it is a real threat is the only provable crisis.

The ACA is the easiest crisis of all to eradicate. Repeal the damn thing and be done with it:

But Judge Collyer evidently believed that the constitutional issue superseded that argument and agreed to rule on the suit.

The battle now moves to the D.C. Court of Appeals to face an uncertain future. The issue of standing could come up on appeal, and given the nearly unprecedented action by Judge Collyer to allow the suit to go forward, it could very well be dismissed.​

May 13, 2016
Judge rules in favor of House GOP in Obamacare suit
By Rick Moran

Blog: Judge rules in favor of House GOP in Obamacare suit​

 

[Sun Devil 92]

Sun Drivel is crying again. He needs a "safe space." OK judge stayed the order and the appeals will go up to SCOTUS where the finding will be denied. Next.

It won't even make it to the U.S. Supreme court, the Washington Supreme court is stacked with anti constitutional lib yards.

Just goes to show once an entitlement is law it can never be taken away, the constitution be dames. Yet the fear mongering liberals always cry the cons are going to take away the 40 hour work week child labor laws etc..

.

Oh, wait, you are responding to a Jakey quote......

How funny.....findings are "denied"......Fakey is a total moron.

You are correct that the political judges of the D.C. based court will find a way to overturn the ruling.

When the court finally goes conservative, the far left has something to look forward to.

And Fakey shows us, once again, he is a RINO.

Does anyone know if there is away to ignore a poster at the level where their posts are removed from quotes you pull up.

Reading Fakey's stuff is both depressing and inspiring. Depressing in that we have an education system that produces total failures like her....while inspiring in that we are human enough not to put them down.

 

[JakeStarkey]

Sun Drivel is crying again. He needs a "safe space." OK judge stayed the order and the appeals will go up to SCOTUS where the finding will be denied. Next.

It won't even make it to the U.S. Supreme court, the Washington Supreme court is stacked with anti constitutional lib yards.

Just goes to show once an entitlement is law it can never be taken away, the constitution be dames. Yet the fear mongering liberals always cry the cons are going to take away the 40 hour work week child labor laws etc..

.

Oh, wait, you are responding to a Jakey quote...... How funny.....findings are "denied"......Fakey is a total moron. You are correct that the political judges of the D.C. based court will find a way to overturn the ruling. When the court finally goes conservative, the far left has something to look forward to. And Fakey shows us, once again, he is a RINO.

I am a mainstream Republican, a patriotic American, and I thank Sun Drivel for nothing that he said yet again.

And Sun Drivel is again in agreement that the courts will overturn the ruling.

So he attacks and yet agrees, the example of a very confused Sun Drivel mind.

 

[Sun Devil 92]

From the OP....not that left wingers like Fakey or rightwinger care about the constitution.

Their idol claimed to be a constitutional scholar.....which, I guess...if you wipe your ass with it long enough....you have to pick up something.

*****************************

At first, the administration asked Congress for an appropriation to cover these costs.

But when that request went nowhere in Congress, officials at the Department of Health and Human Services said they could continue to pay these required reimbursements.

They said payments were like “other appropriate entitlements like Medicaid” that are covered by permanent federal funds and not subject to an annual appropriation.

Judge Collyer called that claim a “most curious and convoluted argument whose mother was undoubtedly necessity.”

 

[JakeStarkey]

My idol is the constitution, which Sun Drivel abhors.

 

[Arianrhod]

So I guess this is not one of those instances where the RW is screaming about "interventionalist judges," huh?

Anyway, it'll be overturned. Enjoy your little victory dance while you can.

 

[Sun Devil 92]

I appreciate that the conversation continues.

The whole idea as mouthed by that moron Press Secretary is stupid and shows the arrogance of this administration.

Nothing is ever settled.

Social Security still gets moved around a bit.

Abortion laws change.

Nothing is settled.

This is only a stall. Which is all that is needed.

Obamacare is going to go down under it's own weight. Insurers are pulling out even as we type.

The nice thing is that it affects only a few people. So they will need some attention when they have to get back in the market.

Hopefully, then they won't be buying overburdened insurance when they do.

I wonder if they think they saved $2,500 a year ?

The RINO's and the left continue to wipe their asses with the constitution.

I still think it's funny that FakeMalarkey thinks findings are "denied"....well, they are by sub-human life forms like her.