Obamacare’s Super-Legislature
Did you know there’s a more unconstitutional provision of Obamacare than healthcare exchanges? It’s called the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). Don’t take my word for it, read it yourself from Cato’s Michael F. Cannon:
IPAB consists of up to 15 unelected government “experts.” Its stated purpose is to restrain Medicare spending. If projected spending exceeds certain targets, Obamacare requires IPAB to issue “legislative proposals” to reduce future spending. Those proposals could include drastic cuts that jeopardize seniors’ access to care, leading some critics to label IPAB a “death panel.”
But wait, there’s more:
The really dangerous part is that these are not mere “proposals.” Obamacare requires the secretary of Health and Human Services to implement them — which means they become law automatically — unless Congress takes certain steps to head them off. Congress may replace the Board’s proposal with its own cuts, at least initially. But Obamacare requires a three-fifths vote in the Senate to pass any replacement that spends more than the Board’s proposal. In other words, to override IPAB’s proposal completely, opponents must assemble a simple majority in the House and a three-fifths majority in the Senate and the president’s signature.
That makes IPAB more than an advisory board. It’s a super-legislature whose members are more powerful than members of Congress. If eight members of Congress propose a bill, all that’s necessary to block it is a majority of either chamber, or one-third of either chamber plus the president.
This is truly alarming news for freedom.
I encourage you to check out Cannon and Diane Cohen’s full analysis at National Review Online.
Sorry for the lack of a direct relationship to your post above Nic, but I just had to have an outlet to point out the following: Holder seeks and Obama grants executive privilege on the “Fast and Furious” Documents. Major hearings ongoing to determine whether or not Holder will be held in Contempt of Congress. Granting of Executive Privilege, by matter of definition, specifies Obama had to have known details of “Fast and Furious” or they would not qualify for EP. Meanwhile on the local front, the crickets are loud over at the Arkansas Times. Max has found it more important to report on Huckabee (imagine that), Pryor’s complicity in ensuring higher electricity costs and fewer jobs for Arkansans (of course, he didn’t put it quite that way), and a rant on Corporate Welfare in Arkansas. However, on one of the major stories to come from Washington, D.C. in decades, Max presents crickets chirping, zilch, zip, nada.