The worst aspect of Obamacare is that we have delegated enormous amounts of power through regulation to the Department of Health and Human Services. Obamacare is the structure, but for every page there will be several or tens of pages of regulations.
As reported by The Weekly Standard (h/t Ben Grivno), it has not stopped there. Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of HHS, has issued a ruling in which she unilaterally assumes price controls over health insurance pricing:
Not satisfied with the colossal amounts of power that she would acquire under Obamacare if it isn't repealed, Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary Kathleen Sebelius has issued a 136-page "rule" that will now give her (and her subordinates) largely unchecked power to pass judgment on the prices of health insurance throughout the United States. Notwithstanding the fact that 43 states already regulate and approve health insurance premiums, Sebelius claims that we need an additional, more centralized, protection against insurers' unseemly 'profit motive.' But a far greater threat to the future of American republicanism is posed by the impulse that animates Sebelius and the bulk of the Obama administration: the power motive.The Wall Street Journal has more:
This discretion is typical of the vast ad hoc powers that ObamaCare handed to regulators, though Ms. Sebelius's true goal is to punish the insurance industry for rising health costs that the new entitlement is already turbocharging. Like so much else in U.S. health care, no one seems to find it odd that the government is decreeing how much businesses are allowed to charge for a product that consumers want to buy, regardless of the economic reality.Of course Obama is now "Mr. Compromise And Work Together." He has the legislative structures in place to regulate virtually every aspect of our health care and consumer and financial affairs. There is precious little left that is not subject to the regulatory process, and if the mandate holds up in court, there will be precious little the federal government cannot force you to do.
The beauty from Obama's point of view of the regulatory state is that Congress does not vote on regulations.
But there is a kink in the regulatory armor, and that is the budget. HHS must be funded, as must the army of people who will carry out the regulations.
The incoming Republican House must be prepared to defund Kathleen Sebelius sufficiently that she cannot expand her authority or implement Obamacare. No capitulation this time, please.
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Pass quarterly (not annual) budget bills so such regulatory nonsense can be defunded on a more timely basis.
ReplyDeleteHelp us, Paul Ryan. You're our only hope.
ReplyDeleteMay I take issue with the title of your post, Professor?
ReplyDeleteSince Secretary Sebelius serves at the pleasure of the President, isn't the problem him and not her?
Thus: Defund Kathleen Sebalius should read Impeach Barack Obama.
Echoing Jeff above: Help us, Darrell Issa! You're our only hope!
I'm not holding my breath. House leadership did an awful job of appointing Assistant Democrats as new committee chairmen. What hope is there? If we can't get our team right, how can we take on the other side?
ReplyDeleteI vote for Sibelius, instead.
ReplyDelete"But there is a kink in the regulatory armor, and that is the budget."
ReplyDeleteGive them time, they'll figure out a way around that too.
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ReplyDeleteIt is called governing. Like all systems of governing, the people need rules, regulations, and standards. The Health and Human Services (HHS) department which has the responsibility to administer the nation's health care systems and programs is no different. One would think a Associate Clinical Professor at Cornell Law School would not need to be reminded of such.
Perhaps for the dufus goobers who follow your lazy writings it is acceptable to be inaccurate. The Affordable Care Act was passed by the people's Congress and signed into law by the President in March 2010. One would think a Associate Clinical Professor at Cornell Law School would not need to be reminded that the quality of his work is reflected in its factual accuracy.
Ema Nymton
~@:o?
The LEFT - taking shit for being right since long before you were born.
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Professor, you put your finger on the key domestic issue of the republic. It is the fork in the road.
ReplyDeleteIt is called governing. Like all systems of governing, the people need rules, regulations, and standards. The Health and Human Services (HHS) department which has the responsibility to administer the nation's health care systems and programs is no different.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny: I can't seem to find any authorization in the Constitution for all these rules, regulations and standards, nor can I find any reference to a department of Health and Human Services, a Department of Education, an EPA, and about a thousand other agencies that infringe on our liberty ever waking (and sleeping!) minute of every hour of every day of our entire lives.
The LEFT - taking away our freedom (and laughing about it) since long before I was born.
Sebilius is doing nothing not otherwise happening throughout our regulatory structure. The HHS decision highlights a gaping, systemic problem with the operation of our government. We are increasingly coming to resemble a bureacratic socialist state in the mold of the EU – where major policy decisions are made by unelected bureaucrats. It was a year ago that we were treated to the EPA taking a step that Congress refused to do – declare plant food (CO2) a pollutant subject to EPA’s authority to regulate. And now today we have this from Sebilius coming directly on the heels of a decision by the FEC to begin regulation of the internet, an act taken without any sort of authorization from Congress.
ReplyDeletePossibly the most important step we could take is to require Congress to vote on all federal regulations before they become binding and enforcable. There should never be another power grab by bureaucrats that we, the people, do not have some say in through the ballot box.
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ReplyDeleteecm
"It's funny: I can't seem to find any authorization in the Constitution for all these rules, regulations and standards, nor can I find any reference to a department of Health and Human Services, a Department of Education, an EPA, and about a thousand other agencies that infringe on our liberty ever waking (and sleeping!) minute of every hour of every day of our entire lives."
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. ... - Constitution Of United States of America.
It is government governing. One would think even an Associate Clinical Professor at Cornell Law School would be able to tell you about "implied" powers in the Constitution of United States Of America if the professor weren't on vacation (vacation he begrudges others all the while taking one) to France. The Constitution is a living document allowing the people's Congress to govern the republic in the people's name. The flexibility written into the living document is what allows the Constitution to be inscribed onto a single sheet of parchment.
People pay taxes as part of 'a more perfect Union' that is USA. The people's government is an integral part of society every waking (and sleeping!) minute of every hour of every day of our entire lives.
Ema Nymton
~@:o?
The LEFT - taking shit for being right since long before you were born.
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I challenge anyone to make a list of the different industries, sectors and private property either nationalized, confiscated or controlled by the federal government over the last two years.
ReplyDeleteYou'll have a hard time coming up with a complete list, because so much of what this out-of-control federal bureaucracy does is hidden from the public, whether through thousands of pages of bills no one bothered to read or mysterious regulations issued by agencies and offices hitherto unknown.
I gotta better idea. It starts with a Vigilance Committee.
ReplyDelete3-7-77
ecm - Show me where the Constitution allows the government to outlaw goat rape? The courts have constantly upheld the ability of congress to make laws and allow for regulation.
ReplyDelete