Bryan Fischer
If the rule of law means anything, ObamaCare can be defunded
By Bryan Fischer
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"
Senators Mike Lee and Ted Cruz have created a petition which ordinary Americans like you and me can sign to insist that our elected representatives defund ObamaCare. As of the writing of this column, 274,921 fellow citizens have signed the "Don't Fund It" petition. You can be the next signer. And you can find out whether your senators intend to fund or defund ObamaCare, with a phone number to call so they can hear from their constituents. That would be you.
Don't let anybody lie to you: defunding ObamaCare can be done.
The Congressional Research Service produced an 11-page analysis, which a number of ruling class Republicans are citing as evidence that defunding ObamaCare cannot be done. A close read, however, makes it clear that the opposite is true.
Since, thanks to Harry Reid, there has been no federal budget since the inauguration of President Obama, the government has for four years been operated according to a Continuing Resolution (CR). The CR must be renewed by October 1, or the government will be slowed down.
(Not shut down, by the way. Don't let anybody lie to you about that either. About 65% of government expenditures will continue to roll right along on auto-pilot, so you and the Republican elites need not fret.)
But there are certain discretionary items – such as funding for ObamaCare implementation – which must be authorized or money cannot legally be spent.
The CRS makes it clear that Obama is asking for close to $1.5 billion in new appropriations, to establish the federally facilitated exchanges, to build out the information technology (the privacy-shredding Federal Data Hub), and to "conduct consumer outreach and education," which means funneling taxpayer money to Planned Parenthood and the SEIU to register Democratic voters while handing out government goodies.
Here's the point: if this money is not appropriated in the upcoming CR, it cannot constitutionally be spent.
ObamaCare will not be repealed, but it cannot be implemented. The exchanges won't be built, the information technology platform will not be built, and the 43% of uninsured Americans who do not even know that ObamaCare is the law of the land will remain blissfully ignorant. No exchanges, no data hub, no consumer education, no ObamaCare.
Of course, we are told that Barack the Lawless will just find a way around the Constitution, and he will certainly try, as is his wont. But Article I, Section 9, says quite plainly, "No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law." What about the phrase "No Money" do people not understand? No continuing resolution, no money. No money, no ObamaCare.
The CRS is also clear that the only allowable exceptions are when circumstances are such that there is a "reasonable" threat to "the safety of human life or the protection of property." Neither of these emergency threats – to human life or property – will exist if ObamaCare is not implemented. They do not exist now, and they will not exist then. Life will simply continue on as before.
In fact, if anything, it is the implementation of ObamaCare that threatens life (through death panels) and property (through onerous ObamaCare taxes and penalties).
This is not difficult to understand. Obama wants an additional $1.5 billion to build out the infrastructure for what I call ChernobylCare, since it will melt down our entire health system. He can't constitutionally get his $1.5 billion unless the CR includes it. He can't legally go around it, since there is no emergency threat to human life or property.
And speaking of the mythical "shutdown" of the federal government, Cruz and Lee propose a CR which will fund every aspect of the federal government except ObamaCare. Which means if the government is shut down, Obama will be the one doing it, to protect his horrid and increasingly unpopular version of socialist healthcare.
Bottom line: ObamaCare can in fact be defunded. Where there is a will, there is a way. So the question is this: do Republican senators have the will? If they don't hear from us, by the hundreds of thousands, we know what the answer to that question will be.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
August 5, 2013
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"
Senators Mike Lee and Ted Cruz have created a petition which ordinary Americans like you and me can sign to insist that our elected representatives defund ObamaCare. As of the writing of this column, 274,921 fellow citizens have signed the "Don't Fund It" petition. You can be the next signer. And you can find out whether your senators intend to fund or defund ObamaCare, with a phone number to call so they can hear from their constituents. That would be you.
Don't let anybody lie to you: defunding ObamaCare can be done.
The Congressional Research Service produced an 11-page analysis, which a number of ruling class Republicans are citing as evidence that defunding ObamaCare cannot be done. A close read, however, makes it clear that the opposite is true.
Since, thanks to Harry Reid, there has been no federal budget since the inauguration of President Obama, the government has for four years been operated according to a Continuing Resolution (CR). The CR must be renewed by October 1, or the government will be slowed down.
(Not shut down, by the way. Don't let anybody lie to you about that either. About 65% of government expenditures will continue to roll right along on auto-pilot, so you and the Republican elites need not fret.)
But there are certain discretionary items – such as funding for ObamaCare implementation – which must be authorized or money cannot legally be spent.
The CRS makes it clear that Obama is asking for close to $1.5 billion in new appropriations, to establish the federally facilitated exchanges, to build out the information technology (the privacy-shredding Federal Data Hub), and to "conduct consumer outreach and education," which means funneling taxpayer money to Planned Parenthood and the SEIU to register Democratic voters while handing out government goodies.
Here's the point: if this money is not appropriated in the upcoming CR, it cannot constitutionally be spent.
ObamaCare will not be repealed, but it cannot be implemented. The exchanges won't be built, the information technology platform will not be built, and the 43% of uninsured Americans who do not even know that ObamaCare is the law of the land will remain blissfully ignorant. No exchanges, no data hub, no consumer education, no ObamaCare.
Of course, we are told that Barack the Lawless will just find a way around the Constitution, and he will certainly try, as is his wont. But Article I, Section 9, says quite plainly, "No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law." What about the phrase "No Money" do people not understand? No continuing resolution, no money. No money, no ObamaCare.
The CRS is also clear that the only allowable exceptions are when circumstances are such that there is a "reasonable" threat to "the safety of human life or the protection of property." Neither of these emergency threats – to human life or property – will exist if ObamaCare is not implemented. They do not exist now, and they will not exist then. Life will simply continue on as before.
In fact, if anything, it is the implementation of ObamaCare that threatens life (through death panels) and property (through onerous ObamaCare taxes and penalties).
This is not difficult to understand. Obama wants an additional $1.5 billion to build out the infrastructure for what I call ChernobylCare, since it will melt down our entire health system. He can't constitutionally get his $1.5 billion unless the CR includes it. He can't legally go around it, since there is no emergency threat to human life or property.
And speaking of the mythical "shutdown" of the federal government, Cruz and Lee propose a CR which will fund every aspect of the federal government except ObamaCare. Which means if the government is shut down, Obama will be the one doing it, to protect his horrid and increasingly unpopular version of socialist healthcare.
Bottom line: ObamaCare can in fact be defunded. Where there is a will, there is a way. So the question is this: do Republican senators have the will? If they don't hear from us, by the hundreds of thousands, we know what the answer to that question will be.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
