I can answer your question, which is quite valid.
The power of purse House has does NOT apply to bills already passed and signed by POTUS into laws. That includes Obamacare. House can not by itself reverse existing laws. That needs passage of another new law.
Reid & Obummer will stall and veto every bills which denies funding to already passed laws.
So, for openers, the power of purse only affects FUTURE spending bills.
I am sure you remember what happened every time a government shutdown took place. It was ALWAYS the republicans who took the blame with a complicit MSM.
So, first things first, republican’s priority must be to win senate in 2014.
How does any of that relate to Congress’ Inherent Contempt power and imprisonment of Lerner and/or Koskinen?
The Power of the purse always applies, But they gotta have balls to swing it.
This is not a completely accurate statement. Appropriations are done on an annual basis. So Congress has the opportunity each year to choose the funding level for any department or program. For example, it might take a separate piece of legislation to repeal Obamacare, but Congress could legally refuse to fund it, to the point where it could not operate. Of course, they would have to be able to pass it through both houses of Congress and overcome a Presidential veto. But the fact that Obamacare was already law would not force them to appropriate funds for it - otherwise, you could never stop funding any program ever passed.
You may be thinking back to the "government shutdown" when this was the Dem talking point. Obama kept getting on TV talking about the debt ceiling, crying that the GOP was refusing to pay for bills already incurred. Of course, that was a lie. Not raising the debt ceiling would have forced the government to stop incurring new obligations above what could be paid with the discretionary income left after paying for existing obligations and mandatory spending (debt service, SS, etc). But of course the MSM parroted that lie and the gullible public bought it.