Surprise: John Kasich Proposes Bailout for Obamacare

For the son of a mailman, the check is always in the mail.

On Thursday morning, governors John Kasich (R-OH) and John Hickenlooper (D-CO) released a plan to “stabilize” Obamacare insurance markets. Here’s what you need to know about the details of the proposal.

John Kasich Doesn't Want to Repeal Obamacare

It's worth repeating that, as recently as three years ago, Kasich said the following regarding the health care law: "From Day One, and up until today and into tomorrow, I do not support Obamacare. I never have, and I believe it should be repealed."

Oh, how times have changed. The governors' plan would not only not repeal Obamacare, it would further entrench the law, by giving tens of billions, and more likely hundreds of billions, of new taxpayer funds to wealthy insurance companies.

Governors Want Trump to Violate the Constitution

The plan calls on the Trump administration to "commit to making cost-sharing reduction payments." But as this space has previously described, the United States has an interesting document--you may have heard of it--called the Constitution. That Constitution places the "power of the purse" with Congress, not the executive.

If Congress does appropriate funds--for cost-sharing reductions or anything else--the executive cannot refuse to spend that money, per a prior Supreme Court ruling. But if Congress does not appropriate funds, the executive cannot spend money. To do otherwise would violate a criminal statute.

Asking the Trump administration to violate the Constitution may seem like a natural request to someone like Kasich, a big-government liberal who ran into legal trouble for expanding his state’s Medicaid program unilaterally. But our nation is a government of laws, not men, which makes obeying the law an obligation of all citizens, let alone the chief executive.

A bipartisan plan. Like the "Conservative DREAM Act!" It's both conservative and bipartisan!

Are you rubes cheering yet?

posted by Ace at 02:05 PM

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