Jul 22 2014
Ding-Dong, ObamaCare Is In Serious Trouble
This is some interesting news:
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit delivered a huge blow to Obamacare this morning, ruling that the insurance subsidies granted through the federally run health exchange, which covered 36 states for the first open enrollment period, are not allowed by the law.
The highly anticipated opinion in the case of Jacqueline Halbig v. Sylvia Mathews Burwell reversed a lower court ruling finding that the federally run exchange did have the authority to disburse subsidies.
In other words, the Administration cannot hide the true cost of ObamaCare anymore behind “subsidies”. Which means consumers get to feel the real pain of this tragedy, as opposed to paying through all forms of taxes – which hide the cost.
How did this happen? It is clear Team Obama has jettisoned the rule of law, and traditions of the Executive Branch and the cross-checks of the divided powers of government. And now the courts are starting to undo this madness.
Good intentions are not amnesty from the laws of land.
At Hot Air they have a similar take:
Plain and simple, if Congress wants to rewrite the law to extend subsidies to federal enrollees, they’re welcome to do it. That’s what legislatures are for. But the law, as written, says what it says, and that’s not the court’s problem.
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Update: Another report estimates that 7.3 million people will be affected by 2016 if this stands, to the tune of $36 billion.
To understand ObamaCare is to live it in its rawest form.
[…] The Strata-Sphere discusses. […]
Nancy Pelosi was right:
They passed it, and we found out what was in it.
In addition to this, there was a report out this morning about how easily it is to fraud the Obamacare site (11 out of 18 times according to the study) to get subsidies fraudulently.
However, about the court ruling…..
The DC court had it right. You have to interpret the law as it was written. However, remember, that the Administration just packed the DC Court with judges via Harry Reid bypassing the advise and consent process by the Senate. So, when the 11 judge panel takes the ruling under consideration they may change that 3 judge panel decision and lean toward letting IRS interpret and change the law as it sees fit.
If the Courts leave actual law as written subject to change by simple agency re-interpretation then that would simply result in lawlessness if you ask me. We live in dangerous times.
“”There’s at least one reason to think that subsidies in federal-run exchanges would be in jeopardy at the high court, and that stems from a recent Supreme Court decision. The court in June mostly upheld the Environmental Protection Agency’s plans to regulate major producers of greenhouse-gas emissions, but the court said the agency overstepped some of its legal authority to regulate small emitters.
The second caveat interferes with The Constitution’s separation of powers. To this, Millman says…
You could see how that same reasoning could apply to these subsidy cases if they got that far. The plaintiffs challenging the administration argue that the IRS improperly allowed subsidies in federal-run exchanges after the text of the statute became unworkable because of so many states’ refusal to set up their own exchanges.
I don’t think this Obamacare subsidy conversation will continue much further in this context. In other words, I think everyone who’s purchased health care plans, whether from state-run exchanges or the federally-run healthcare exchange will continue to receive subsidies. But the lines of division between states against and those in support of Obamacare are abundantly clear… Now more than ever.””” END QUOTE!
Krauthammer had a better point and I will try to explain ir
This line of reasoning goes to States Rights, although this logic is a little more muddled than Krauthammers assertion that any attempt at divining Congressional Intent by the Courts is an overreach and outside the Courts powers. They are to read law and interpret the law as written not try to divine the Lawmakers intentions, BUT should they overreach into the area of divining intent they could, if they were being fair and non partisan, following logic rather than Lyin Rat policy/ talking points, they could easily decide that the Subsidies were SPECIFICALLY denied to the Feds and the idea was to FORCE them upon the States as a way to lower the Feral Govt cost curve. Remember these Lyin Rats were desperately, through every accounting trick and double income counting method possible, desperately, trying to keep the cost below the Silver Bullet 1 Trillion dollars which the American people, the pencil pushers in Office of Management and Budget and some half honest Senate Scum would have used to reject this Farce, CommieCare! Thus it could very easily be argued that the INTENT of the Framers of CommieCare was to ONLY allow the subsidies through States Exchanges keeping the cost curve down for the Feds. This scam was precisely the reason 36 States rejected the mandated State Supplied Subsidies/Exchanges as it would blow up the States Budgets and obligate the States to ever increasing costs for the foreseeable future. Roberts ruling the first time around was a bonanza for safe guarding states rights and for the denial of compulsory purchases demanded by the Feral Govt of her citizen subjects, unless the fees were determined to be a tax, which he did decide, even though the Lyin Rats argued it wasn’t, it was a Penalty! An IRS Penalty may be in the Purview of the IRS…A TAX IS DEFINITELY NOT IN THE IRS PURVIEW IT IS THAT OF CONGRESS AND THE POTUS,THE ELECTABLE, THUS ANSWERABLE, NOT UNELECTED BUREAUCRATS,,,,,,,,,,,IF unelected appointees of the POTUS can raise and impose taxes upon We The People we have no recourse NONE WHATSOEVER over our financial affairs and fate! THIS IS THE ARGUMENT I BELIEVE WILL KILL COMMIECARE IF THE SUPREMES HAVE THE CAJONES TO RE VISIT IT!