Fix Health Care Policy

Yesterday we highlighted two recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports (October 14, 2010 and February 10, 2011) that detail how Obamacare bypassed the traditional yearly budgeting process and created a $105 billion slush fund for implementation. As we explained yesterday, if conservatives are serious about stopping Obamacare, they must proactively defund this money program by program.

Today former Congressmen and Heritage Foundation Distinguished Fellow Ernest Istook will testify on this subject before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health. The hearing started at 10 AM and is titled Setting Fiscal Priorities in Health Care Funding.

(Read the rest at The Foundry…)

Tags: congressional research service, defund Obamacare, Ernest Istook, Obamacare slush fund

You’d think that billions of dollars in government spending would be hard to hide, especially from the Members of Congress who voted for it. Think again.

Buried in the 2,700 pages of last year’s Obamacare legislation lies $105 billion in appropriated funds that bureaucrats are already using to implement Obamacare. On Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) brought that news to light when the subject turned to budget cuts.

REP. MICHELE BACHMANN: …There was a Congressional Research Service report that just was issued in February, and we discovered that secretly, unbeknownst to members of Congress, over $105 billion was hidden in the Obamacare legislation to fund the implementation of Obamacare. This is something that wasn’t known. This money was broken up, hidden in various parts of the bills. And we have worked very hard to discover $61 billion in cuts that we could put forward, get to the president. So, in effect, David, we’ve taken one step forward and two steps back because we’ve found now that $105 billion had already been implemented. (Read the rest at The Foundry…)

Tags: appropriated funds, Obamacare slush fund, Rep. Michelle Bachmann, repeal