John Boehner since Jan. 2011 has refused to allow the Constitutionally provided standalone, up or down vote to defund ObamaCare. Nor has he allowed a vote to approve O'Care as a tax. ObamaCare is currently illegal.
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2/5/14, "Sen. Lee: Congress Chooses Not to Exercise Its Own ‘Power of the Purse’," CNS News, by Barbara Hollingsworth
"Although Congress still has the “power of the purse,” it chooses not to withhold funding whenever President Obama tries to do an end-run around it by issuing executive orders because members of both parties are content with passing all-or-nothing spending bills that take this constitutional option off the table, says Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah). CNSNews.com asked Lee why Congress has not used its constitutional authority to rein-in such presidential overreach.
“Yeah, Congress has not done that, and it’s a source of great frustration to me," the Utah Republican replied. "A lot of it has to do with the fact that Congress has gotten into this very pernicious pattern in which it considers spending legislation on an all or nothing basis....
"And it's a real injustice to the American people that too many members of congress in both houses and in both political parties, quite frankly, are content with this kind of practice. It's got to stop," Lee told CNS News."...via Lucianne
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Codevilla: Since Jan. 2011 Boehner has been able to defund ObamaCare by holding a standalone, up or down vote:
9/17/13, "The Obama-Boehner Project," Angelo M. Codevilla, libertylawsite.org
"The Republican Party owes its majority in the House of Representatives – and John Boehner his speakership thereof – to the American people’s dislike of Obamacare. Because the US Constitution is explicit that the US government may expend only funds appropriated by Congress, Obamacare has existed strictly at the sufferance of the House leadership since that majority took office in January 2011. But John Boehner and his chosen band have thwarted the majority of Republican congressmen’s desire to use the constitutional power they have to refuse to appropriate money for Obamacare. In this, Boehner &co. have worked in bipartisan coordination with the ruling class, including the media, including Fox News.
By September 2013, spurred by the Party’s constituent groups, Republican congressmen and senators had vowed to exclude Obamacare from the omnibus spending bill that funds government operations. (the existence of such bills, which neuter Congress’ constitutional authority over spending, will be the subject of another column). Boehner and his band responded with a proposal to vote on the omnibus spending bill, twice: once without Obamacare, so as to allow Congressmen to feign evidence of faithfulness to the principles for which they were elected, and another with Obamacare. The latter would pass with the votes of all Democrats and just enough of the Republican leadership to put it over the top. It would become law, and satisfy the ruling class’ constituent groups: the insurance companies, the hospital lobby, as well as left wing ideologues....
Support for Obamacare was dwindling daily to the ruling class’ inner core as the membership of organizations whose leaders had supported its passage now demanded that these leaders lobby for exemptions from it. The labor movement, one of the ruling class’ key constituencies, was turning against it as vehemently as the Republican rank-and-file. Hence Boehner’s continued fidelity to Obamacare was especially boneheaded.
The ruling class’ foolishness and insincerity, its willingness to insult the American people’s intelligence, are no joke. But we can take comfort in its transparent ineptitude."
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Comment: Codevilla gives Rupert Murdoch and Fox News credit they deserve for keeping the radical left in power.
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GOP 'leadership' loves ObamaCare, has never had any intention of defunding or repealing it. They even put an ObamaCare defunding measure in the GOP controlled House Appropriations Committee where they made sure it was "deadlocked" for an indefinite period:
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9/29/11, "Draft spending bill would defund Obama healthcare law," The Hill, Sam Baker
"House Republicans released a draft spending bill Thursday that would cut off funding for many parts of the healthcare reform law, though the bill remains deadlocked in the Appropriations Committee."...
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10/2/13, “Obamacare can be defunded without Senate approval,“ Examiner, Christopher Collins
"Dr. Harold Pease, an expert on the United States Constitution, stated that the authority in dealing with Obamacare funding belongs to the U.S. House, not the U.S. Senate and that the House is doing this all wrong.
Pease said, “Everything hinged upon funding which was given exclusively to the House of Representatives, the only power that they alone had.”
Pease went on to say, “All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills. To fund anything, in this case Obamacare, first approval is required by the House of Representatives.”
“If that does not happen taxpayer money cannot be spent. The people, through their representatives to Congress, have determined, after a three-year closer scrutiny of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), that it does not protect the patient, is not affordable and is not even workable; hence in the interests of the vast majority of the people needs to be defunded.”
When the United States Supreme Court ruled on Obamacare in 2012, Chief Justice Roberts stance on Obamacare coincides with the intent of the U.S. Constitution, explained by Pease, and the powers between the House and Senate.
According to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Obamacare cannot be implemented and is not considered the law of the land....
"Because Congress doesn’t have the ability to mandate, it must, to fund Obama-care, rely on its power to tax. Therefore, the mechanism that funds Obama-care is a tax,” said Atkinson....
When the House attached Obamacare to the legislation in funding the government, it made a mistake in doing so and the funding of Obamacare should have been separate, thereby giving the Senate no power in denying the Houses’ request to defund Obamacare.
Pease said, “House opposition to funding Obamacare would have been far more powerful if made a “stand alone” bill not attached to general funding, but it is not. “Stand alone,” having no other parts, would have left the Senate no wiggle or compromise room once it went to them, nor would there be for the Joint Conference Committee thereafter that reconciles any differences between the two houses. There would be nothing to reconcile, Obamacare is merely defunded.”
“Still, the intent of the Founding Fathers was to give the people, through their House of Representatives, the power collectively to say no to any proposed federal tax, which she is decidedly doing.”
[Edited for clarity] If Obamacare is removed from the government budget, presented, and voted on as a separate bill, Obamacare can be defunded by the House. "...
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"So long as the Uniparty exists, mere voters will have no way of affecting what the government does."
12/15/13, "Breaking The UniParty," Angelo Codevilla, libertylawsite.org
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The confused Sen. Ron Johnson (R) claims ObamaCare is "mandatory spending:"
9/26/13, "Sen. Ron Johnson: 'Stop Relying on the Federal Government to solve your problems,'" CNS News, via Fox News
Senator Ron Johnson: ""Obamacare is permanent law. It's part of that mandatory spending."" (quote at end of article)
.
“And
it’s a real injustice to the American people that too many members of
Congress in both houses and in both political parties, quite frankly,
are content with this kind of practice. It’s got to stop,” Lee told
CNSNews.com. - See more at:
http://m.cnsnews.com/news/article/barbara-hollingsworth/sen-lee-congress-chooses-not-exercise-its-own-power-purse#sthash.U8CtMSZH.dpuf
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