Rep. Bachmann Helps Expose Secret Stash of Obamacare Cash

Posted March 7th, 2011 at 5:39pm in Health Care   Print This Post

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.

Word of the $105 billion is particularly relevant as Congress tries to find ways to cut spending, with Republicans calling for $61 billion in cuts , while the White House has agreed to only $10 billion . Defunding Obamacare and pulling the plug on the billions of phantom funding is a good way to start. Former Congressman Ernest Istook, who helped uncover the appropriation , explains how to cut the funding :

There is major money that could be pulled back immediately.  Congress could rescind the $5 billion appropriated in Section 1101(g) to create high-risk pools, the $5 billion appropriated in Section 1102(e) for a re-insurance program, and the $6 billion in Section 1322(g) to create insurance exchanges.  The CRS report details billions more in current and future funding equally available for the cutting.

Rescinding that funding would steer the United States to a more fiscally responsible future, but it would also help put the kibosh on Obamacare. That’s not bad for a day’s work.

Source: http://blog.heritage.org