As economists urge Congress to de-fund Obamacare, lameduck battle looms
By: David Freddoso
Online Opinion Editor
10/21/10 2:05 PM EDT
Today, the group DefundIt.org is hand-delivering a letter to Capitol Hill that has been signed by 64 economists, asking members of Congress to de-fund Obamacare. The letter, whose text I have pasted below, highlights what will become the next political controversy if Republicans gain a majority in one or both houses of Congress. Will President Obama sign a bill that de-funds his own pet project? Or will we end up in a government shutdown situation?
The first big battle will come during the lameduck Congress. Republicans, who may hold as many as 43 Senate seats in the lameduck (the Illinois and West Virginia races are both special elections), will try to get a continuing resolution that keeps the government open until victorious Republicans take their seats in January. Democrats will try to rush through as many appropriations bills as they can, and they will likely try to fund Obamacare.
Next year, Republicans will need to think carefully about how they proceed with spending bills. They will try to attach “none of the funds contained in this bill” clauses related to the money Obamacare needs to establish its bureacracies, enforce its employer mandates, and levy fines against the uninsured and under-insured. But President Obama will obviously be wary of signing bills that contain such riders, as it would amount to an admission of defeat.
If Republicans want to avoid being blamed for a total government shutdown — and if it happens, this is inevitable, no matter how blameworthy Obama is himself — their best bet is probably to pass all of the spending bills separately (no omnibus), and only play chicken with Obama on the appropriations bills that affect Obamacare spending: primarily Treasury, Health and Human Services, and Labor. Even more effective, how about providing funds for the agencies within those departments that people would actually miss, but not others? House Republican Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, suggested such an approach during a recent speech at AEI:
<<< Let’s do away with the concept of “comprehensive” spending bills. Let’s break them up, to encourage scrutiny, and make spending cuts easier. Rather than pairing agencies and departments together, let them come to the House floor individually, to be judged on their own merit. Members shouldn’t have to vote for big spending increases at the Labor Department in order to fund Health and Human Services. Members shouldn’t have to vote for big increases at the Commerce Department just because they support NASA. Each Department and agency should justify itself each year to the full House and Senate, and be judged on its own. >>>
Rule-changes to appropriations could easily facilitate such an approach in the House — the Senate is another matter, but all spending bills must originate in the House anyway. And of course, the legislative picture becomes even more complicated if Republicans take the House but not the Senate, as seems likely.
Anyway, here’s the letter:
Dear President Obama and Members of Congress,
Rising health care costs have burdened the economic prosperity of American businesses and families for far too long. The recently passed reform law fails to address this concern and is even likely to raise costs due to its imposition of burdensome regulations and over $500 billion of higher taxes.
To restore America’s prosperity, Congress should de-fund the current law until it can be repealed and replaced with proven free-market solutions that have increased access to care by decreasing costs in states around the country.
We look forward to working with you to advance America’s prosperity by making our health care system more accessible and affordable.
Sincerely,
William Allen, University of California Los Angeles
Charles W. Baird, California State University, East Bay
Chip Baumgardner, Pennsylvania College of Technology
Walter Block, Loyola University New Orleans
Samuel Bostaph, University of Dallas
Scott Bradford, Brigham Young University
William Butos, Trinity College
Phil Bryson, Brigham Young University
Bryan Caplan, George Mason University
Richard Cebulla, Armstrong Atlantic State University
Lloyd Cohen, George Mason University
Lee Coppock, University of Virginia
Jim Cox, George Perimeter College
Kirby Cundiff, Northeastern State University
Antony Davies, Duquesne University
Ronnie Davis, Printing Industries of America
Jeff Dorfman, University of Georgia
William Dougan, Clemson University
Floyd Duncan, Virginia Military Institute
Fred Esposto, Kutztown University
Susan Feigenbaum, University of Missouri, St. Louis
Charles Geiss, University of Missouri – Columbia
Micha Gisser, University of New Mexico
Ed Graham, University of North Carolina Wilmington
Gerald Gunderson, Trinity College
Dennis Halcoussis, California State University, Northridge
Scott Harrington, University of Pennsylvania
Bradley Hobbs, Florida Gulf Coast University
John Hoehn, Michigan State University
Thomas Howard, University of Howard
Bruce Hutchinson, University of Tennessee Chattanooga
Brian Jacobsen, Wisconsin Lutheran College
Daniel Klein, George Mason University
Kishore Kulkarni, Metropolitan State College of Denver
Bart Lee, Golden Gate University
Donald Luskin, Trend Macrolytics
Yuri N. Maltsev, Carthage College
Lawrence McQuillan, Pacific Research Institute
Roger Meiners University of Texas Arlington
Tracy Miller, Grove City College
Thomas Moeller, Texas Christian University
John Murray, University of Toledo
Allen Parkman, University of New Mexico
Judd Patton, Bellevue University
William Peirce, Case Western Reserve University
Joseph Pomykala, Towson University
Ivan Pongracic, Hillsdale College
David Ranson, Wainwright & Co. Economics
Charles Rowley, George Mason University
Paul Rubin, Emory University
John Ruggiero, University of Dayton
John Seater, North Carolina State University
John Semmens, Laissez Faire Institute
Alan Shapiro, University of Southern California
Stephen Shmanske, California State University, East Bay
Robert Stein, First Trust Portfolios
Brian Strow, Western Kentucky University
Jason Taylor, Central Michigan University
David J. Theroux, The Independent Institute
Alex Tokarev, The King’s College
Nikolai Wenzel, Hillsdale College
Brian Wesbury, First Trust Portfolios
Gary Wolfram, Hillsdale College
Bill Yang, Georgia Southern University
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