Posted by Tina
You may have heard that the Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelious, has been soliciting donations from private businesses to promote “Enroll America”. What you may not have heard is some of the grimy details behind the curtain of secrecy that permeates in this administration. Now some of those that have been pressured are objecting in what could become another scandal:
The links between a nonprofit promoting President Obama’s healthcare law and the White House have created an “air of expectation” that insurers will contribute to the group, according to an insurance industry official.
Current and former administration officials have taken on leadership and fundraising roles for Enroll America, a nonprofit aiming to make sure people sign up for new coverage options. As the ties grow deeper, the organization has come to feel like “just an arm of the administration,” said one official who works closely with insurers.
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has already come under fire from congressional Republicans because she has raised money for the organization.
Big surprise! This administration does not operate under the concepts of a free people or a private sector. They operate under that infernal, imperious “we” that suggests the collective is in control when in actuality the elite’s of the collective mandate.
Apparently some of these businesses have contacted their Congressmen because the GOP is now widening their probe into the matter:
Sebelius is attempting to impose a quasi-tax on insurers by pushing them for donations at the same time they have to qualify themselves and their health-care plans with HHS. Enroll America has former and current Obama administration figures in its top ranks, making the connection even more explicit. Refusing to ante up for Enroll America might prejudice HHS in its determinations — a suggestion that would have sounded unlikely until this month’s IRS corruption scandal showed federal agencies perfectly willing to discriminate based on politics.
If indeed that was Sebelius’ plan, it violates the concept of the separation of powers. The executive branch is accountable to the legislative branch primarily through the power of the purse. An attempt to bypass that accountability by setting up supposedly independent private organizations and then twisting arms using enforcement power to fund them would be a serious breach of that division of power. The committee wants to know exactly what Sebelius and HHS may have threatened or promised in exchange for those funds.
It’s going to be a long summer of in Washington DC featuring lies, dark comedy and revelation after surprising revelation!
Wouldn’t it be grand if after all of the wheeling and dealing, backroom deal making, opting out and fuss this very bad healthcare law was just overturned? According to those polls repeal would reflect the will of the people…what a concept!
I hope you all enjoy this “kickoff to summer” weekend. I also urge you to take time out to reflect on those who have given their lives in service to this nation Their sacrifice will form the perfect context for consideration throughout the summer of the many failings of our government. Big government is simply not workable. And specifically, Chicago style politics will not do for the greatest nation ever conceived in human history or for the memory of America’s fallen patriots.
Kathleen also got her hands slapped last year when she was out campaign fundraising for Obumble on HHS business.
Guess she didn’t learn anything . . . .
J. Soden, you’re one sharp voter, you get our Voter Appreciation Award for this month!
As for the rest of the voters, I’m not so sure they have the collective intelligence to overturn Obamacare or vote in those who could. I’m more in to the camp that feel, if their brains were turned into gunpowder, they would’nt have enough to blow their nose.