Thread: HHS to Healthcare Companies: We Need Your "Donations" to Fund Obamacare

HHS to Healthcare Companies: We Need Your "Donations" to Fund Obamacare

Guy Benson | May 13, 2013











This story dropped late on Friday, perhaps because HHS sources hoped it would slip through the cracks over the weekend and disappear. In light of the swirling Benghazi developments and the burgeoning IRS scandal, this wasn't a bad bet. But this stunner from the Washington Post is too important to allow to simply glide past unexamined:

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has gone, hat in hand, to health industry officials, asking them to make large financial donations to help with the effort to implement President Obama’s landmark health-care law, two people familiar with the outreach said. Her unusual fundraising push comes after Congress repeatedly rejected the Obama administration’s requests for additional funds to set up the Affordable Care Act, leaving HHS to implement the president’s signature legislative accomplishment on what officials have described as a shoestring budget.

This has all the hallmarks of a shakedown. DrewM at Ace of Spades snarkily summarizes: "Hi I'm HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. You may recall I have tremendous discretionary power over your company and entire industry. Would you like to donate to my favorite cause? You would? Thank you so much." Obamacare vests Sebelius with an enormous amount of regulatory power; she has the ability to make life exceedingly difficult for any company that crosses her (recall her "zero tolerance" quote). "Friendly" requests for "voluntary" donations may not seem optional for companies who sense the HHS Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads. Administration spokesmen are predictably shrugging off accusations of extortion and insisting there's "nothing improper" to see here. Senior Republicans have a different take:

Tennessee Republican [Sen. Lamar Alexander] compared the HHS secretary's requests for donations from insurance companies to the Iran-Contra scandal. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius might have broken the law by asking insurance companies to donate to outside groups promoting President Obama's healthcare law, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said Saturday. Alexander compared the fundraising to the Iran-Contra scandal. "Secretary Sebelius’s fundraising for and coordinating with private entities helping to implement the new health care law may be illegal, should cease immediately and should be fully investigated by Congress," Alexander said in a statement.

The Post's in-house conservative Jennifer Rubin thinks this story ought to rise to the top of the Obama administration scandal depth chart:

I realize scandal investigations are backing up like cars on the Beltway in rush hour, but this one seems like it should go close to the front of the line. We have an unpopular health-care bill with gross implementation and design problems that exceeds its budget. The solution? Stiff arm the industry for “contributions.” It’s apparent that both Obamacare and the HHS secretary operating it are out of control. Congress should investigate and any monies obtained in this fashion should be returned. Then we should pause, assess where Obamacare stands and figure out if it can be implemented without inflicting harm on 300 million Americans — or should I say, any more harm.

Harry Reid recently grumbled about Republicans' refusal to pump more taxpayer money into Obamacare's implementation phase. The GOP has stood firm against committing even one more penny to the extravagantly expensive, enduringly unpopular and logistically shambolic program. The administration's apparent solution to this problem of their own making is to coerce private businesses into financing a bailout.


UPDATE - It's worth pointing out that Boehner and McConnell declined to offer Republican appointments for Obamacare's IPAB rationing board last week.

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybens...acare-n1593421


Maybe just maybe and that is a big maybe if all the politicians would get off the dole and pay big into this fiasco for their own healthcare and families etc, and get off the taxpayers back, exempting all their friends, family, and relations and who ever else they can think of, people in this Country wouldn't be thinking they are, crooks, swindlers,theives or just plain evil human beings...I'm just saying I mean look at that picture what do you think they are..

SEBELIUS UNDER FIRE FOR OBAMACARE FUNDRAISING BYPASSING CONGRESS



by JARRETT STEPMAN 13 May 2013 20POST A COMMENT

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has concocted an unusual way to fund the Affordable Care Act, and now some Republican lawmakers are calling her efforts illegal.

According to a report in the Washington Post, over the past three months the HHS secretary has “made multiple phone calls to health industry executives, community organizations and church groups” asking them to support ObamaCare “in any way they can.”
Though the HHS has denied any wrongdoing, Republicans in Congress have jumped on the strategy to uncover any potential illegal activity.
Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) said in a statement, “Secretary Sebelius’s fundraising for and coordinating with private entities helping to implement the new health care law may be illegal, should cease immediately and should be fully investigated by Congress.”
According to Sen. Alexander, this fundraising scheme is similar to the Reagan-era Iran-Contra scandal in that money has been funneled from private entities after Congress had intentionally withheld appropriations, circumventing the constitutional requirement that only Congress has the power to appropriate funds.
Congress has denied additional funds to the ObamaCare program and financial insolvency looms in its future.
Initial estimates about the cost of ObamaCare were low, and the law’s supporters have been looking for additional funding to keep the program afloat. Requests to Congress for additional money were turned down, and many of the state governors have refused to comply with setting up insurance exchanges, forcing the Obama administration to look for ways to get around the dearth of funds.
Sen. Alexander also said, “If the secretary or others in her department are fundraising and coordinating the activities of Enroll America and soliciting donations to supplement appropriated funds, then those actions may be in violation of the Anti-Deficiency Act.”
Enroll America is a Washington, D.C. nonprofit group that has been enlisted by Sebelius for help in implementing the Obama Administration’s health care law. The HHS claims that the main role for Enroll America and other similar organizations is “outreach”; according to Enroll America President Anne Filipic, the purpose is to aid in the cooperation between public, private, and nonprofit sectors.
A spokesman from the HHS denied any illegal activity and said that a section of the Public Health Service Act allows Secretary Sebelius to work with outside organizations. The Public Health Service Act was passed under President Franklin Roosevelt in 1944 and gives the HHS secretary the power to encourage outside groups to contribute to government initiatives but not to directly fundraise.
This dance around the law has prompted skeptical Republican leaders to question whether or not the HHS has willingly or unintentionally fallen into a trap of illegality in its desperate push to fund Obama’s signature legislation.
Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) said in a statement, “To solicit funds from health-care executives to help pay for the implementation of the President’s $2.6 trillion health spending law is absurd.” Hatch vowed to continue investigating the matter to determine whether or not this cooperation and “outreach” has developed into something illicit.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...re-Fundraising