New Obamacare Challenge: Lawsuit Says IRS Is Flouting the Law As Written by Congress

cnsnews.com ^ | 5/2/13 | Susan Jones

[ColdOne]

(CNSNews.com) - Here comes another legal challenge to Obamacare: On Thursday, a group of small business owners and individuals in six states sued the federal government over an IRS regulation that they say goes beyond the "plain language" of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

In a nutshell, the plaintiffs argue that federal subsidies intended to help lower-income people afford insurance are going to states that should not get them.

The way the Affordable Care Act is written, states that refuse to set up their own health care exchanges are not eligible for the federal premium subsidies.

But the IRS rule says lower-income people living in those states will get federal subsidies to help them pay for their insurance premiums -- even though the Affordable Care Act's statutory language limits those subsidies to exchanges established by the states.

[Pollster1]

Remember when the White House could only spend money as allocated by Congress. Of course, that was when we had a real president in the White House. The usurper does not think he is constrained by the Constitution.

[molson209]

IRS also gets the authority to water-board for fun

[Principled]

Interesting and good.

The IRS cannot, by itself, change the law - which this suit asserts.

That is, the IRS, by itself, decided to change the part of the law that says the feds will subsidize premiums for individuals who reside in states that set up an exchange.

The IRS changed the law by simply deciding to subsidize premiums for individuals in ALL states - irrespective of whether the State set up an exchange.

The suit alleges that is injures some people - such people are plaintiffs.

I like it.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

I agree, I think. What was it, tho, that SCOTUS said about the Feds not being allowed to punish states which don’t do what the Feds want under Obamacare??

[Stingray51]

This is a really important lawsuit. As the law is clearly written (well, at least this part of the law is clear), federal subsidies only go to people in states where there are state exchanges. If you live in a state without a state exchange, you are not eligible for the subsidies. And if you are not eligible for the subsidies, then your employer is not subject to the penalties imposed on employers (over a certain size) who fail to provide health insurance to their employees. This is another aspect of the law that renders it completely non-functional in large parts of the nation. So the IRS is attempting to essentially re-write it by regulatory fiat.

[buckalfa]

"The usurper does not think he is constrained by the Constitution."

That is the rub. The checks and balances of the Constitution only work if the Congress decides to enforce the document on the Executive Branch's actions. Since Congress has not acted, the Won believes his governance is in fact constitutional. The shame is on the electorate for refusing to vote the communists out of Congress.