When it comes to current events, it seems we live in a world drawn into three camps: "us", "them", and "not going to talk about anything other than cat videos for fear of being forced into one of the first two camps". Facts (or at least the notion of an objective reality that may not conform to my preconceived notions/meta-narrative) and the messy nuances of life have no place in this world.
Take the ACA hubbub. The narrative is Trump is trying to illegally kill the ACA. Like him or not, this isn't accurate.
By way of explanation, under the ACA people whose household income falls between 100 and 400 percent of the poverty level qualify for two kinds of financial assistance.
The first is a tax credit to reduce insurance premiums, authorized under ACA Section 1401. The ACA supports these premium reductions with a permanent appropriation built into the law.
The second is a reduction in cost-sharing, under ACA Section 1402. Unlike the premium reductions, these are not funded via tax credits but by direct reimbursements to insurance companies. Also unlike the premium reductions, Congress did not pass an approprations bill to accompany this article of the ACA.
Why? Congress didn't want to pass a law that essentially cuts checks to Big Healthcare Companies. So the Obama administration appropriated the funds. This isn't legal, as appropration of funds is only allowed by the House of Representatives.
Whether one is for or against the ACA, the reality is Congress needs to act to preserve it due to the fact that they relied on the illegal appropriation of funds by the executive branch to make the ACA viable.
http://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/HofR-challenge-to-ACA-DCt-5-12-16.pdf
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