JEFFREY: Fate of Obamacare controlled by Republicans — period

In the next few days, politicians in Washington, D.C., will do and say many things to make it look and sound as if they are against Obamacare when in fact they are ultimately planning to use the power that has been vested in them by the people of their districts and states to ensure that Obamacare is funded and implemented.

But make no mistake: If Obamacare is funded and implemented it will be because Republican members of Congress decided to do it.

This is not a debatable supposition. It is an irrefutable fact. The fate of Obamacare is controlled completely by Republicans — period.

Article 1, Section 9, Clause 7 of the Constitution says: “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law.” That means that President Barack Obama cannot spend a dollar out of the Treasury unless Congress has enacted a law authorizing him to spend that dollar. As of now, the law authorizing Obama to spend dollars expires on Sept. 30.

Both houses of Congress must pass a bill and the president must sign that bill for it to become law. If the House does not pass a bill authorizing Obama to spend money implementing Obamacare in the period after Sept. 30, Obama cannot spend money for that purpose.

Last week, the Republican-controlled House approved a bill to fund the government after Sept. 30 that specifically states that “no Federal funds shall be made available to carry out any provisions” of Obamacare and that prohibits all the new “entitlements and benefits” under Obamacare from taking effect.

As long as House Republicans insist on keeping this language in any legislation enacted to fund the government after Sept. 30, Obamacare is dead.

If House Republicans decide to remove this language, Obamacare will live. And, if House Republicans decide to let Obamacare live now, it almost certainly will live (or evolve into a single-payer health-care system) as long as America itself manages to stumble along under the accumulating burden of it and all the other welfare-state programs that have been created in this nation since President Franklin Roosevelt first began building an American welfare state in the 1930s.

It will not matter if Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., refuses to move a government-funding bill through the Senate that includes the House language defunding Obamacare. It will not matter if Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and the majority of Senate Republicans — except Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Mike Lee, R-Utah, and a few other stalwarts — decide to let Reid pass legislation to fund Obamacare by a simple majority vote. It will not matter if Obama vows to veto any legislation that includes the House language that prohibits funding for Obamacare.

Unless the Republican-controlled House passes legislation that permits funding of Obamacare, Obamacare is dead.

The strategic framework of this battle is simple: Everything Obama, Senate Democrats and their allies in the liberal media are doing in this fight seeks a single end — making House Republicans enact legislation funding the implementation of Obamacare.

If Obama, Senate Democrats and their allies in the liberal media cannot make House Republicans fund Obamacare, they lose and America wins.

So, the question is this: Why would House Republicans abandon their current principled position and go ahead and fund Obamacare?

In general terms, this answer is also simple: They will only do it if they believe that, for enacting legislation to fund Obamacare, they will get something they value even more in return.

But what could that be?

To answer that, it is first necessary to weigh the value of what the Republicans would get if they hold their ground and stop Obamacare. In that case, they would preserve a large measure of American freedom that is imminently threatened.

Under Obamacare, for the first time ever, the federal government will force American citizens to buy a product they do not want.

Under Obamacare, the administration will give tax dollars to insurance plans that pay for abortions — the deliberate taking of innocent life.

Under Obamacare, the administration will force Catholics and other Christians to buy and/or provide coverage for services — including sterilizations, artificial contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs — that violate the teachings of their faith.

Obamacare will annihilate both freedom of conscience and innocent human lives — in the babies aborted by its subsidies.

Could Obama and Senate Democrats and the liberal media offer anything of such great value that House Republicans should trade it for this?

No.

Terence P. Jeffrey is the editor-in-chief of CNSnews.com. 

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