Billions for ObamaCare have already been funded and are being spent by bureaucrats. Present de-funding efforts don't address this.

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"The Obama Administration even now is spending to promote that law."...Reference: "Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research Membership" $1.1 billion budgeted in Obama Stimulus for personnel to address "subpopulation" health needs.

2/18/11, "The dirty little secret about de-funding ObamaCare," BigGovernment.com by Ernest Istook

"Several members of Congress, like Rep. Denny Rehberg (R, MT) and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R.-Wash.) are offering amendments that would prevent any new spending from being used to implement Obamacare.

• Good for them. Those are important additions to the big spending bill pending in Congress.

But here’s the dirty little secret: Much of Obamacare is being implemented with money that was already appropriated last year. These billions are already available

• for bureaucrats to put Obamacare into force.

Denying additional funding for Obamacare does not de-fund the huge amounts it already is using for implementation.

• That requires additional action.

Even though the last Congress failed to pass other appropriations bills (creating the need for the currently-pending spending measure), that former Congress DID provide billions to get Obamacare launched. The money was directly appropriated as part of the health care legislation, rather than included in a separate appropriations bill as is the normal practice.

The details are in a Congressional Research Service report issued last October, “Appropriations and Fund Transfers in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).” CRS devotes seven pages to describing the billions of dollars already appropriated and which the Obama Administration

• even now is spending to promote that law.

Conservatives agree with the American people that Obamacare should be repealed. Short of outright repeal, leaders from 32 conservative groups in the Conservative Action Project have unitedly stated that the next-best strategy is defunding. As their report states, “The safest route for legislatively combating Obamacare is to defund it. Now that the statute has been declared unconstitutional, Congress should use the power of the purse to deny funding for the individual mandate, employer mandates, and writing the 100s of regulations need to impose Obamacare. Such legislation will not in any way jeopardize the ongoing litigation efforts.”

It’s good that a federal judge has declared Obamacare unconstitutional, but the White House insists it’s going forward anyway. It’s good that the House may cut off any new money to implement Obamacare. But unless Congress deals with the pot of money already provided, we won’t meet the goal

• of defunding Obamacare."

"Cross-posted from foundry.org"

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Reference: 9/26/10, "Obamacare's redistribution of health," by Betsey McCaughey, NY Post commentary.

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Feb. 9, 2009, "Ruin your health with the Obama stimulus plan," Bloomberg Commentary, Betsey McCaughey

• It turns out $1.1 billion of the so-called "stimulus" in early 2009 was taken from productive citizens and paid to

bureaucrats to do research into health "subpopulations," to set up part of the Tom Daschle inspired health care councils. The health care bill didn't exist, yet $1.1 billion was removed from a desperate economy to promote the bill and work on commanding doctors to serve 35 million more people, earn less, have less freedom in setting up hours and places of business, and thus be forced to radically change both their professional and family life. After all their years of study, the enormous expense and sacrifice to become a doctor, a batch of community organizers (despite perhaps being clinicians as well) thinks they can order physicians around as if they were secretaries to serve sub-populations and federal dependents and anyone else for that matter. Assuming many aren't already doing a lot of charitable work to begin with. No doctor needs to agree to this.

• Details are in US government document (HHS.gov) written sometime before April 2009 (though headed with today's date). That no one in congress stopped this or publicized it is another example of why the Tea Party became what it did.
  

• 'Betsy McCaughey is a former New York lieutenant governor and author of "The Obama Health Law: What It Says and How to Overturn It." betsy@defendyourhealthcare.us'

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