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Sebelius: ObamaCare is the law of the land, so you might as well help us implement it
Hotair ^ | 02/05/2013 | Erika Johnsen

Posted on 02/05/2013 11:01:07 AM PST by SeekAndFind

Or, in other words: Just give in already to the power of the all-knowing and all-powerful bureaucracy. Trust us.

Last June, the Supreme Court ruled that ObamaCare’s Medicaid mandate (requiring that states expand their programs and provide specified health care to all citizens whose income falls below a certain threshold, or else face losing all prior federal funding) was an unconstitutional “gun to the head” for states’ administrations and budgets, and confirmed their right to opt out without penalty — but that doesn’t mean the Obama administration isn’t applying every type of political pressure and fiscal inducement they can to coerce states into getting on board. As HHS Secretary Sebelius noted yesterday,

President Obama’s health care law is “here to stay,” but cannot fulfill its promise if states do not expand Medicaid and the uninsured do not take advantage of the benefits designed to put coverage within reach of millions more Americans, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Monday.

Addressing the National Health Policy Conference in downtown Washington, Mrs. Sebelius said the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 remains the “law of the land” after the Supreme Court upheld its key provisions in June and Mr. Obama won re-election in November, but several moving parts must sync up before the reforms can be fully effective.

“So my challenge to all of you today, and actually my plea to all of you … is help us speed up the rate of change,” she said.

Ten GOP-led states have already rejected the Obama administration’s bribe to pick up 100 percent of the Medicaid expansion’s tab for the first three years before eventually scaling down to 90 percent by the end of the decade, but twenty other states are still undecided. The red states that have decided to expand Medicaid include New Mexico, North Dakota, Nevada, and Arizona (for which the WSJ has a good explanation of the carrot-and-stick strategy being deployed by the Obama administration). On Monday, Gov. John Kasich of Ohio announced that he would become the fifth Republican governor to give in to the pressure, to the ire of many conservatives:

Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), who opposed President Barack Obama’s health care reform law, wants to take advantage of Obamacare funding to expand his state’s Medicaid program to more poor people, he announced in his budget proposal Monday.

Kasich is now the fifth GOP governor to back the Medicaid expansion, joining Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and fellow GOP leaders in Nevada, New Mexico and North Dakota in agreeing to a key component of Obama’s efforts to extend health coverage to as many as 17 million people through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program over a decade. Including Ohio, the chief executives of 20 states and the District of Columbia are now on board with the Medicaid expansion. …

“We are going to extend Medicaid for the working poor and for those who are jobless trying to find work,” Kasich said at a news conference in Columbus Monday that was broadcast online. “It makes great sense for the state of Ohio because it will allow us to provide greater care with our own dollars.”

As Philip Klein points out in light of the Ohio governor’s decision, it’s getting even harder to stay afloat in a big-government ocean trying to drown you into submission:

Whatever justifications Kasich may give, the actual explanation for his embrace of the Medicaid expansion is political cowardice. Chastened by his failed attempt at public sector union reform and Obama’s victory in the state, Kasich is up for reelection next year. And he’s afraid to stand up to the inevitable onslaught of attacks from Democrats who would charge that he was refusing to accept free money to bring health care to poor Ohioans. The end result is that a politician who ran for office claiming to have been “in the Tea Party before there was a Tea Party” is now actively embracing a policy that the Tea Party movement was born to oppose.

This should serve as a sober reminder to conservatives that no matter how big of a disaster Obamacare is when it’s implemented in 2014, the nation is almost certainly stuck with it. More broadly, it’s a demonstration of how difficult it is to defeat big government.

A feat made especially difficult when said big government is blithely glossing over wherever it is all of this new money is supposed to come from while also steadfastly refusing to acknowledge that our entitlement spending is absolutely the main culprit behind our $16 trillion debt and neglecting to correct the populist impression that ObamaCare is going to provide “free healthcare.” What a nightmare.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bigbother; corruption; democrats; dictatorship; dissentispatriotic; fraud; fusebelius; govtabuse; obamacare; obamunism; sebelius; tyranny; waronliberty
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1 posted on 02/05/2013 11:01:22 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Separate but equal was the law of the land as well. Was she happy to help implement segregation?


2 posted on 02/05/2013 11:02:36 AM PST by 17th Miss Regt
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To: SeekAndFind

Defense of Marriage Act is the law as well. So she might as well help us implement it.


3 posted on 02/05/2013 11:03:22 AM PST by Jeff Winston
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To: SeekAndFind

When Boosh was president, the Leftist meme was that dissent was patriotic.


4 posted on 02/05/2013 11:06:35 AM PST by a fool in paradise (America 2013 - STUCK ON STUPID)
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To: SeekAndFind

Two fingers and sqeeze.

5 posted on 02/05/2013 11:06:34 AM PST by Slyfox (The key to Marxism is medicine - Vladimir Lenin)
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To: SeekAndFind
If this isn't a case of "We didn't break the law, the law broke us.", I don't know what is.

6 posted on 02/05/2013 11:07:42 AM PST by BitWielder1 (Corporate Profits are better than Government Waste)
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To: SeekAndFind

FUKS


7 posted on 02/05/2013 11:09:06 AM PST by NTHockey (Rules of engagement #1: Take no prisoners)
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To: SeekAndFind

FU Mengele


8 posted on 02/05/2013 11:09:16 AM PST by Doogle (USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated))
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To: SeekAndFind

Well Secretary Sebelius it’s like this/

I ma get screwed, but I am not going to put it in for you.


9 posted on 02/05/2013 11:11:00 AM PST by Venturer
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To: SeekAndFind

Well Secretary Sebelius it’s like this/

I may get screwed, but I am not going to put it in for you.


10 posted on 02/05/2013 11:11:14 AM PST by Venturer
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To: SeekAndFind

There is no way that any sane and honest person would help HHS to implement such a terrible law. Many evil things have been law, but good people do not bow to them.


11 posted on 02/05/2013 11:14:43 AM PST by Pollster1
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To: SeekAndFind

Its worse then you think. HHS is ‘reinterpreting’ other laws to massively expand their reach.

ANY company which touches patient records in ANY way is now subject to HHS regulations. Massive cost increases and govt intrusion.


12 posted on 02/05/2013 11:19:04 AM PST by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: Slyfox

Sebelius just sounds so much like succubus.


13 posted on 02/05/2013 11:32:50 AM PST by Cowgirl of Justice
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To: SeekAndFind

Resistance is futile Sebelius told the herded crowd of sheeple.


14 posted on 02/05/2013 11:33:21 AM PST by AtlasStalled
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To: SeekAndFind

NO


15 posted on 02/05/2013 11:33:30 AM PST by Ray76 (Do you reject Obama? And all his works? And all his empty promises?)
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To: SeekAndFind

SO SPEAKS TILLER THE KILLER'S VERY BEST FRIEND


16 posted on 02/05/2013 11:37:58 AM PST by Gay State Conservative ("Progressives" toss the word "racist" around like chimps toss their feces)
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To: 17th Miss Regt

Separate But Equal was trivial.

There was a time it was legal under the law of the land for one man to own another as property.

Would she have a problem with implementing that?


17 posted on 02/05/2013 11:39:38 AM PST by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: Ray76

Hey, Katie -

“Resist We Much”


18 posted on 02/05/2013 11:46:12 AM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: SeekAndFind

When rape is inevitable....


19 posted on 02/05/2013 11:47:34 AM PST by Redleg Duke ("Madison, Wisconsin is 30 square miles surrounded by reality.", L. S. Dryfus)
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To: SeekAndFind

She reminds me of Frau Blucher from Young Frankenstein. I always expect to hear a horse whinny whenever her name is mentioned.


20 posted on 02/05/2013 11:50:35 AM PST by circlecity
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