Between President Obama’s make-them-up-he-goes-along amendments to the Affordable Care Act and the Supreme Court’s revisions to make it Constitutionally permissable, at least by its tortured reading of that document, any resemblance between the original law and what we actually have is coincidental. From Michael F. Cannon at washingtonexaminer.com, via davidstockmanscontracorner.com:
Obamacare supporters are mistaken if they think the Supreme Court’s King v. Burwell ruling settles the issue. Even in defeat, King threatens Obamacare’s survival, because it exposes Obamacare as an illegitimate law.
Say what you will about the Affordable Care Act. Democrats passed it in haste. In desperation. Without knowing what was in it. With no bipartisan support. By one vote. In the dead of night. Over public opposition. Using lies. With disdain for “the stupidity of the American voter.” Still, barring some constitutional defect, the ACA as enacted was the law of the land.
Yet President Obama and the Supreme Court now have amended the ACA to the point where it has been transformed into something no Congress ever enacted — indeed that no Congress ever had the votes to enact. The executive and the judiciary have effectively repealed the ACA and replaced it with “Obamacare,” which enjoys no such legitimacy.
Before the ink was dry on the Affordable Care Act, President Obama began amending it in dozens of ways that only Congress is authorized to do. Simply usurping Congress’ legislative powers would have been bad enough. But Obama’s changes were designed to prevent Congress from legislating.
The ACA immediately threw members of Congress out of their health plans, effectively cutting their pay by $10,000. Obamacare, in contrast, gives Congress a special exemption that lets them keep their health plans and slips $10,000 per year into the pockets of lawmakers, without the constitutional hassles of an act of Congress and an intervening election.
The ACA required many employers to buy more robust health plans six months after enactment. Obamacare, on the other hand, offered waivers to politically connected employers and union plans, lest they lobby Congress for relief.
The ACA requires large employers to buy coverage for their workers beginning in 2014. Obamacare, on the other hand, delays that mandate by up to two years, lest a backlash give rise to legislation. (Even Obamacare’s supporters had trouble stomaching that one.)
The ACA threw millions out of their health plans in 2014. But Obamacare allows people to keep the very health plans Congress outlawed. Obama even threatened to veto bipartisan legislation that would have done the same thing, but legally.
Congress forgot to appropriate $135 billion for cost-sharing subsidies. Obamacare spends that trifling sum without an appropriation. And the list goes on…
The Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, has done even more to amend the ACA.
To continue reading: The ACA Is Dead
