"We Have To Pass The Bill To See What's In It"

Representative Nancy Pelosi stated, "We have to pass the bill to see what's in it."

Well, every day we learn something new.  Maybe some day some of it will be good, but right now, it's not.

Two of the sources for this article are a post at Representative  Michele Bachmann's website from Friday, and a post at Human Events on February 15th.

The issue is a whether or not the House of Representatives (which according to the Constitution initiates all legislation regarding spending) can defund Obamacare.

According to Human Events:

"Some don't realize that last year's Congress did appropriate money for ObamaCare, even though it failed to pass appropriations bills for anything else.  The billions appropriated for ObamaCare are outlined in Congressional Research Service Report R41301, "Appropriations and Fund Transfers in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)," issued on Oct. 14."

The third source, The Heritage Foundation, reports:

"One of Obamacare's most egregious insults to the rule of law is its effort to take away the power of the current Congress, future Congresses, and future Presidents to decide what level of funding--if any--its programs should receive. The law does this by including billions of dollars in actual appropriations of funds for future years.

"As the CRS (Congressional Research Service)  notes, Obamacare "contains two types of budgetary provisions in relation to the new entities created by or through the legislation. Several of the provisions directly provide funding (referred to as "direct spending"), bypassing the annual appropriations process, through techniques such as multi-year or permanent appropriations. Some of these provisions also impose other requirements or conditions. (11). 

One example cited by the CRS in a related report (12) is an advance appropriation of $6 billion in Obamacare's Section 1322, requiring the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish a "Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan (CO-OP)," better known as the insurance "exchange" program. The statute does not specify how much of the $6 billion is designated for each fiscal year, presumably giving a blank check to Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to spend when and how she likes."

Please follow the links above to read the entire articles at the Heritage Foundation and the other sources.  This bill was passed in a way that was a slap in the face to the voters and now we are finding out that the way it is to be implemented is a slap in the face to the U. S. Constitution.