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Affirmative Action Reconsidered
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A Further Perspective
Death Panel Rattle
Romney can move public opinion by further exposing Obamacare’s unelected board.
Until two nights ago, most voters were largely unaware of the unelected 15 member Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) created as part of Obamacare. Mitt Romney can further capitalize on his adroit performance in Wednesday’s debate by focusing public attention on the power and influence of IPAB in the coming weeks.
When he was asked why he wanted to repeal the federal health care law, formally titled the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), Romney quite correctly touched on rising insurance costs, and Medicare cuts, but it was his third response to moderator Jim Lehrer that really stood out.
“Number three, it puts in place an unelected board that’s going to tell people ultimately what kind of treatments they can have,” Romney said. “I don’t like that idea.”
Anyone who believes in constitutional limited government won’t like the idea either.
The IPAB is charged with developing proposals to “reduce the per capita rate of growth of Medicare spending,” according to the PPACA. The Board’s authority is activated whenever Medicare’s future spending is expected to increase faster than the target rate, which is the average of the change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) until 2018. At that point, the target rate is set to the nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capital plus one percentage point. The Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) must implement the Board’s proposals, unless Congress intervenes.
In practice, this means there are few meaningful limits on the IPAB’s ability to shape policy. Obamacare calls for a 3/5 supermajority vote in the U.S. Senate to change or repeal any proposals from the IPAB. The PPACA also prohibits administrative and judicial review of IPAB laws.
This would be worth mentioning in the next debate.
The Goldwater Institute in Arizona is proceeding with a lawsuit — Coons v. Geithner — that challenges the constitutionality of Obamacare on the basis of the IPAB. The suit argues that the board violates the separation of powers. Moreover, Goldwater’s attorneys point out, the federal health care law has been written in such a way to keep the unelected board members permanently entrenched.
In order to repeal the IPAB, Congress must enact a Joint Resolution, but it is prohibited from introducing such a resolution until 2017, and must act no later than Feb. 1 2017. The resolution must be in place no later than Aug. 15, 2017. In the event that a resolution is introduced, PPACA calls for a super-majority vote, meaning 3/5 of all elected members of Congress must support the resolution. Even if a resolution is passed, the Board would not disband until 2020.
“Protecting any new federal agency from being repealed by Congress appears to be unprecedented in the history of the United States,” Clint Bolick, vice president of litigation at the Goldwater Institute, has said. “No possible reading of the Constitution supports the idea of an unelected, standalone federal board that’s untouchable by both Congress and the courts and we will pursue this challenge all the way back to the Supreme Court if necessary.”
There’s plenty of ammunition here for Team Romney.
About the Author
Kevin Mooney is an investigative reporter with free market think tanks associated with the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity. He has also written for the Daily Caller, the Washington Times, the Washington Examiner, NetRightDaily.com and NewsBusters.
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Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 10.5.12 @ 7:29AM
The IAPB, correctly termed a death panel, is only the tip of the iceberg.
The media has done a good job of keeping the racial preferences built into the law a real secret:
http://www.americanthinker.com.....acare.html
Under ObamaCare, if a medical or dental school wants to increase its chances of receiving many different kinds of grants and contracts from the federal government, it should "have a record of training individuals who are from underrepresented minority groups" or "from underrepresented minorities." This is because ObamaCare requires the secretary of health and human services to give priority to the entities that have demonstrated such a record in the awarding of these grants and contracts to medical and dental schools and other entities.
ObamaCare does not state what would qualify as a "record" of such training, so we can expect medical and dental schools and the other entities to do whatever they think they can get away with to train as many "individuals who are from underrepresented minority groups" or "from underrepresented minorities" as necessary to have a better "record" in this regard than their competitors. ObamaCare creates a significant financial incentive for medical and dental schools and other entities to lower admission standards for "individuals who are from underrepresented minority groups" or "from underrepresented minorities" if that is what it takes to have the winning "record" of such training.
Von Mises Jr| 10.5.12 @ 9:18AM
Affirmative Action got us this incompetent we now have in the White House.
Jack in Wi| 10.5.12 @ 7:52AM
This is a tremendous essay and I commend the author. What do the Democrats stand for but abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, sky high taxes, massive wasteful government programs, corrupt government unions and war?
Purp| 10.5.12 @ 9:21AM
Taxes are less today than at anytime since the 1950's ... Can you explain how Democrats are for sky high taxes?
Where have you been?
JD| 10.5.12 @ 12:36PM
That's a lie borne out of cooked books. Through "tax expenditures", your camp sums the "taxes" of people who "pay" negative taxes into the national total, in order to make it look lower.
Only a leftist could look at two people, one of whom pays $20,000/year and the other of whom gets a $5,000/year handout through the tax code, and say with a straight face that the sum of their taxes is $15,000/year.
Jack in Wi| 10.6.12 @ 3:22PM
Purp: I am glad you agree with me that the Democrats are for euthanasia, war, homosexuality, abortion, bloated and corrupt government unions, and massive waste. We only disagree on sky high taxes. You are wrong on that issue.
benny havens| 10.5.12 @ 8:02AM
Joe Biden: "Do we want a trillion-dollar tax increase?" "YES WE DO!"
That's all we need to know.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 10.5.12 @ 8:09AM
As Joe himself might say, "This is a big F#$k!&g deal".
Joellen| 10.5.12 @ 8:04AM
The Good Governor Sara Palin had this pegged from day one. And yet who do we have in office as VP, Joe "we will raise your taxes" Biden. GOD HELP US!
Von Mises Jr| 10.5.12 @ 9:26AM
Isn't it amazing that we plebeians that didn't go to Havvaad or NYU understand reality for what it is?
These over-schooled, under-educated pompous a$$e$ are told from day one that they are the "intelligent few" and we are their "bewildered herd."
As liberal/socialist, they are here to fix the mess that God made in His Creation of man. History, morals and traditions are what devolved us from our "Noble Savage" beginnings and we need Barry and Shrillary "Supermen" to perfect us.
What a freaking joke these fools are that suffers from Hubris and Pride.
Nick| 10.5.12 @ 11:16AM
****BREAKING NEWS****
ACTUAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE IS STILL 12%!!!!!
ONLY 114K JOBS ADDED!!!!
23 MILLION AMERICANS STILL UNEMPLOYED!!!!
LABOR DEPT. COOKS THE BOOKS TO HELP REGIME!!!!!
And, the Appeaser-in-Chief still had his backside handed to him at Wednesday's debate. Liberals spent yesterday trying to find it for him!!!
Von Mises Jr| 10.6.12 @ 8:12AM
BREAKING NEWS: CORRECTION – MINISTRY OF INFORMATION
GDP GROWTH RATE IS 7.8% AND UNEMPLOYEMENT DROPPED FROM 1.7% TO 1.3% THIS WEEK.
OBAMA, OBAMA, OBAMA, Hmm, Hmm, Hmm
Purp| 10.5.12 @ 9:21AM
*** BREAKING NEWS ****
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE DROPS to 7.8%!!!! Economy added 800,000 JOBS ... highest in 30 years!!!!
Mittens go back to your car elevator and give yourself the SHAFT! Hahahahaha....
Robert| 10.5.12 @ 11:02PM
*** BREAKING NEWS ****
BLS announced today PURP is spelled T-W-E-R-P.
That makes it FACT.
Hahahahaha....
Von Mises Jr| 10.5.12 @ 9:41AM
Private sector jobs +104K and +10K government jobs equals 114K Caliban. Extremely weak and should have pushed U3 up, not down.
The alleged 873K is supposedly part-time jobs added and is a mythical trick to get the real 11% U3 rate to look like it is under 8%. The alleged people returning to work are supposed to be part-time perhaps like your troll job or hamburger flipper.
Now you can go back to your lover's shaft
Von Mises Jr| 10.5.12 @ 10:55AM
It gets curiouser and curiouser.
Four-hundred thousand disappear from the work force and four-hundred phantom new jobs appear from a survey. It is like magic. Shazam.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-G.....yment-drop
Von Mises Jr| 10.5.12 @ 1:29PM
Now it is becoming clear. The real BLS Jobs Report had 114K added. You need more than that to stay even with some 3 million in immigration.
They used the Household Survey that is a limited sample that is then used to project the figure they want. Apparently they applied the correction they created in this household phone poll to then adjust the real BLS numbers that were from employers. Neat trick, but way too obvious.
Al Adab| 10.5.12 @ 11:38AM
Part of the governing philosophy which grew out of the Progressive Era is the idea that a "professional" governing class could be created which would manage the affairs of state without considering political consequences. Like so much else in theory it has proven deadly to self government in reality. What we have created is a Mandarin class governing through regulation without regard to the wishes of, and unaccountable to, the electorate, that is, the citizens at large. Literally we have thousands of Federal agencies with millions of employees seeking only to justify their own being.
The panels to ration health care under the Obamacare plan is simply another all too powerful agency and is dangerous to the very citizens it ostensibly seeks to serve.
Kwan| 10.5.12 @ 1:31PM
The true mission of the IPAB is to rid the population of the "useless eaters" -our senior population- as quickly as possible, so Obama and the Commiecrats can divert money from Medicare to Obama's base the moochers, slackers, layabouts, illegal aliens, and bums that the commiecrats depend upon to remain in office. Mental and physical midget and ObamaCare advisor Robert Reich makes it clear that the fate of our oldsters is sealed once ObamaCare's Death Panels begin giving the thumbs down on any care that they deem is too expensive: "“We’re going to have to, if you’re very old, we’re not going to give you all that technology and all those drugs for the last couple of years of your life to keep you maybe going for another couple of months. It’s too expensive…so we’re going to let you die.” - Robert B. Reich
Intelligent Design| 10.5.12 @ 3:31PM
Government, including the Death Panel, should have no role in deciding what kind of treatment a person needs. In fact, Medicare should be completely dismantled in favor of private insurance, allowing insurance companies to provide coverage on a nationwide basis -- not limited to a particular state. Obamacare should of course be repealed in its entirety.
Appleby| 10.6.12 @ 8:00AM
Want to see ObamaCare is in force, come up and spend a weekend in any Toronto Hospital emergency room. Then look at our newspapers; people who can't get treatment for serious injuries or fatal diseases, who are raising money to take their loved one to the USA. Recently we had a child who is going blind, for whom the local hospitals admit they have NO TREATMENT AVAILABLE, for whom there IS treatment at a hospital in Detroit, and the Death Panels here in Ontario steadfastly insist that he must be treated inToronto (NO TREATMENT AVAILABLE) or (shrug) go blind. Then there's the guy who was on a Wait List for surgery, whose acceptance letter was received a week after he died. And the baby rushed to America for treatment without her parents because they didn't have papers to cross the border...and the girl with seven leg fractures from a car accident, whose doctor could not finda surgery or hospital bed in the entire Province that could help her -- she was airlifted to Buffalo for her operation, without her parents due to Border Issues....and the women who are transported to the USA by air ambulance for multiple births, because there is not One Single Neonatal Intensive Care Bed IN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY OF CANADA...and by the way, these little babies become American Citizens the minute they're born in Minnesota, Detroit, or Buffalo. It's out there. It should be reported. It's what you're in for when ObamaCare becomes your only option besides flying to India.
Abu Nudnik| 10.6.12 @ 7:25PM
Good news regarding Coons v. Geithner. It's a slam dunk or close to it. I can't see the case losing, barring an unforeseen change in the constitution of the Court. That it is a violation of separation of powers is plain.
pete schmidt| 10.7.12 @ 11:01AM
It's been expressed to me that once your over 70 years of age, that they offer under obamacare, what is called " compassionate care" for all situations. You receive drugs for your pain, as you wait for your untimely passing as issued by your IPAB(death panel).