image credit: True Democracy Party
Andrew McCarthy is no fan of President Trump,
but his clear analysis of Trump’s dismantling of Obamacare is in stark contrast with all the media hysteria:
The law
is unraveling on its own terms.
. . . What
Trump has actually done is end the illegal payoffs without which insurance
companies have no rational choice but to jack up premiums or flee the Obamacare
exchanges. The culprits here are the charlatans who gave us Obamacare. To
portray Trump as the bad guy is not merely fake news. It’s an out-and-out lie.
Which
is to say: It’s about as honest as the Democrats’ labeling of Obamacare as the
Affordable Care Act.
The
subsidy payments to insurance companies may be “critical” to sustaining the
ACA, but they are not provided for in the ACA. The Obamacare law did not
appropriate them. No legislation appropriates them. They are and have always
been illegal. In essence, we are back to the question we asked a couple of
weeks ago in connection with Trump’s then-anticipated decertification of
Obama’s Iran Nuclear Deal: It is not whether the president should take this
action; it is why he failed to take it before now.
Under the Constitution, no
funds may be paid out of the treasury unless they have been appropriated by
Congress. It is not enough for lawmakers to authorize a government program or
action. The House and Senate must follow through with a statute that directs
payment for the program or action. Standing alone, authorization is just
aspiration; it does not imply appropriation. Congress authorizes a lot of
things, but only the things for which Congress approves the disbursal of public
money are permitted to happen.
. . .
Read
the rest here.
# # #
