So a group of tea party Republicans led by Senators Ted Cruz (Texas) and Mike Lee (UT) – and supported by groups such as FreedomWorks, Heritage Action, and Club for Growth – pushed a risky strategy to block ObamaCare funding, which led to a partial government shutdown. Logically, President Obama and Senate Democrats were equally to blame for the shutdown; they could have avoided this by approving one of the House-passed bills that funded the government while amending the president’s health care law. But that was unlikely. The media and public thought the GOP was more culpable and the GOP relented. ObamaCare is gone safely.
What followed was the inevitable mutual recriminations between the “defunders” and their opponents. If I may paraphrase and/or embellish: The closure was a failure! No, it wasn’t! You are stupid! You voted for ObamaCare! Each camp blames the other for the outcome and insufficient commitment to fighting ObamaCare.
To put the cards on the table, as enthusiast of the median voter theorem who opposed the defunding strategy before I supported it, I believe it is too early to judge whether it was a failure. As of today, it has produced no benefits, and ObamaCare opponents’ poll numbers have dropped.
On the other hand, ObamaCare justifies drastic measures. Opponents spent political capital by taking a principled stand against a bill whose implementation was: two weeks train wreck. Even staunch supporters like Ezra Klein called it “catastrophe” said former Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs heads should rollAND nobody knows whether the administration can muster its strength before the health insurance “Exchange” craters. If not, a defund strategy will be used All ObamaCare opponents seem predictable.
Finally, no one focused on the undeniable success of the shutdown: for one brief, shining moment, my salary was greater than my wife’s.
Ultimately, the defunding strategy may turn out to be a disaster. Or helpful. As the Zen master said, we will see. Here video
It is clear that recriminations unwisely distract ObamaCare opponents from adding momentum to strategies that are already undermining funding for the law. Here are four things your opponents should do better than fight each other:
1. Stop Medicaid expansion in states.
As ObamaCare’s authors projected, Medicaid expansion would account for roughly half of the $2 trillion in spending on modern benefits over the first 10 years. But after the Supreme Court blocked Congress’ attempt to force states to implement it, 25 states refused to do so.
As a result, these states have already funded nearly a quarter of ObamaCare’s modern benefit spending. They also contribute to increasing dissatisfaction with the law among hospitals and other healthcare providers, who will now not receive the promised subsidies in exchange for their support.
If Cruz, Lee, FreedomWorks, Heritage Action, Club for Growth and the rest really want to oppose ObamaCare funding, they should do so fighting to block Medicaid expansion in the 25 states that already allow it. Want to crush Republicans who are supple on ObamaCare? Come to Ohio, where Gov. John Kasich (R) all but claimed it GodI want Ohio to expand Medicaid, literally tiring do it without support and despite the opposition of the legislator.
2. Urge states, employers and citizens to challenge the IRS’s illegal ObamaCare taxes.
ObamaCare allows Exchange subsidies only through state exchangesnot the 34 exchanges established by the federal government. As a result, those 34 states that legally refused to establish exchanges defunded another third of that $2 trillion. Because these subsidies carry penalties under both the employer mandate and the individual mandate, these states also exempted all of their employers by law and approximately 8 million individual inhabitants from these penalties.
It is incredible that despite the clear language of the statute and congressional intent, the IRS is attempting to impose these taxes and grants in these 34 states anyway. The IRS is literally trying to tax, borrow and spend over $700 billion without congressional approval — a more egregious example of taxation without representation than the Stamp Act.
State attorneys general, employers and individual taxpayers have so far filed four lawsuits challenging these illegal taxes. A federal judge did rejected the Obama administration’s attempt to dismiss a complaint filed by Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt. A dozen school districts in Indiana filed a lawsuit along with that state’s attorney general, Greg Zoeller. The federal court in Washington will hear oral arguments regarding another challenge on Monday.
How National Review edits: :
they may not have much power in Washington, where they control, in John Boehner’s words, half a third of the federal government; but there’s a reason we have 50 states and Republican governors lead 30 of them. Republican governors, attorneys general, and state legislators who want to utilize their offices for the significant benefit of the nation as a whole should get in line to form a 30-state united front with Oklahoma. Scott Pruitt is fighting for the rule of law, and Republican governors could go to great lengths to lend a hand him.
If anti-ObamaCare groups really want to oppose funding the law, they should urge governors, attorneys general, employers and their members to file additional grievances.
3. Educate states on legislative blocking of illegal IRS taxes.
The 34 states that have refused to set up exchanges could actually block ObamaCare’s illegal IRS taxes by law license suspension insurers who accept illegal subsidies. Because no insurer would accept such coverage, not a single employer in the state could face the employer-mandated penalties these subsidies create.
Legislators in Ohio and Missouri I have already introduced legislation based on the draft language I proposed in my Cato study50 veto” The American Legislative Exchange Council has endorsed the “Health Care Freedom Act 2.0” and is offering own model legislation.
4. Urge House investigators to subpoena all materials relating to illegal IRS taxes.
House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and government reform AND Ways and means investigated illegal IRS taxes over a year. This August, House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (Calif.) asked an IRS witness:
Where the hell is the article on this?… Where is the analysis? Congress disagrees with you, at least the House of Representatives, that your rule is lawful. We asked for an analysis. You have blocked us… Where are the notes, recommendations, [and] the analysis we asked for?
Issa called the IRS representative “an almost useless witness“I threatened that if the agency doesn’t show up in time, “not only will I issue a subpoena, but I’ll have to do a lot more.” Here video: :
Yet the Treasury Department continues to refuse to turn over numerous emails and other communications that, according to my source, show that the IRS conducted almost no analysis of the law before deciding to tax, borrow and spend $700 billion without congressional approval. If ObamaCare opponents want to overturn the bill, they should urge Issa to follow through on his threat to issue a subpoena and “do a lot more.”
A good test of whether advocates or critics are more committed to stopping ObamaCare will be which side puts down its knives first and gets to work.
This article was published in Forbes
