John Boehner and Mitch McConnell are refusing to make any recommendations for the Death Panels:
The top two Republicans in Congress informed President Obama on Thursday that they will refuse to fulfill their duty under the Affordable Care Act to recommend members of a new board with the power to contain Medicare spending.
It’s a dramatic power-play driven by the explosive partisan politics of Obamacare and with potentially important implications for federal health care policy.
In a letter to President Obama, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) noted their original opposition to Obamacare, reiterated their intent to repeal it entirely, and declared that they would not make any appointments to the Independent Payment Advisory Board.
Under the law, the Secretary of Health & Human Services is authorized to make the cost containment decisions if the IPAB isn’t established, so this won’t stop the implementation of ObamaCare. Ironically, it simply cedes more power to the Obama administration.
It will allow the Republicans to politicize any cost-cutting decisions but it also points out their hypocrisy. They claim that Medicare is too expensive and needs to be voucherized, but they are opposed to a board that would make Medicare more affordable.
The Republicans are already refusing to confirm members to the Federal Election Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the National Labor Relations Board.
Maybe this is how the Confederates should have behaved instead of seceding. They could have just broken the federal government with obstruction and a refusal to confirm anyone to serve in it.
In any case, Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will now have full responsibility for the Death Panels.
They are relentless and destructive. There has to be a way to make them pay politically and electorally. Reid could try another filibuster reform, fergodsake.
Reid could try another filibuster reform, fergodsake.
Reid is like the boy who cried wolf re: filibuster reform.
One more reason to be thrilled Kathleen Sebelius is HHS Secretary. Smartest appointment Obama has made in his presidency.
Except for her unconscionable behavior around emergency contraception.
Maybe this is how the Confederates should have behaved instead of seceding.
Even the Confederates had more integrity than today’s GOP.
Perhaps that’s what the GOP learned from the Confederates: Better to be a live weasel than a dead Confederate.
True, they actually had principles. Lousy principles, but principles nonetheless.
You know, the Republicans in Congress – all of them – could make a really, really powerful statement about their belief in the fundamental illegitimacy of government by resigning their seats. And refusing to stand for any further elections to an inherently tyrannical system. That would show us!
Wonder why it hasn’t happened? Methinks they lack the courage of their convictions…
It has nothing to do with courage or conviction. It only has to do all about MONEY!
Ya think?
I see a trend here – GOP opts out of Obamacare in key ways – ceding control to the feds in over 20 states, for example, and now this – basically giving Obama far more control than he originally asked for.
My whole “these republicans are so effing crazy they’re closet democrats” theory is becoming more credible by the day.
So what are the guesses as to where Sebelius will go first to cut costs? She comes across as one who prefers a scalpel approach but that isn’t to say she won’t use it at the jugular.
I suppose she can start with an electric chair for Chuck Grassley’s grandma.
Too late!
Get Paul Ryan to roll wheelchair-bound grannies off a tall cliff literally instead of metaphorically?
Maybe Sebelius could give Paul a break. She could see to it that it’s his staff doing the granny-killing.
The lowest-hanging fruit is the overuse of expensive tests “just to rule out” things which there is no reason to suspect.
I, for one, am just as glad to not have any Tea Party crazies on the board.
We get another judge.