The Obama Plan - No Solution for Health Care Reform

President Obama has put forth his own version of health care reform - a bill that many believe is designed to be a compromise of the differing House and Senate approved versions.  However, the President's health care plan offers no real solution to the challenges facing America when it comes to health care reform.  There are a number of reasons for concern.  There are questions about the substance of the plan and the legislative process involved. 

The President's plan - among other things - includes using federal funds for abortions.  Read our detailed legal analysis here.  We've also provided a legal analysis of how the President's plan deals with the individual mandate.  That memo is here.

First, there are a number of critical flaws in the way that the President and Congress are moving forward.  There are constitutional concerns about permitting the Executive Branch to absorb the legislative responsibilities of the Legislative Branch. 

Clearly, the Executive Branch is expected to express opinions on legislative matters.  And it should.  However, when it comes to debate and drafting legislation, the Constitution is quite clear that it is Congress - and Congress alone - that has that authority.  During the health care debate, the legislative process failed to produce a final bill that could be approved by both chambers of Congress.  Therefore, the President has stepped in and produced a final bill.  In our view, that move directly sidesteps the Constitution and represents a glaring overreach of his authority.  His bill does something else, too - it disenfranchises millions of Americans who are being denied the right to have their elected members of Congress involved in this final debate.

To put it plainly, the President has written a final health care reform bill that is intended to be a "compromise" between the House and Senate passed bills.  However, the Constitution does not grant him this authority.  Only Congress possesses such authority.

Second, the President has made the same mistake that the Senate Finance Committee made several months ago.  He has released a plan that consists of conceptual language - not legislative text.  So, while it may be easier to read, it is not specific and is open to interpretation.  With the President's plan, we are asked to simply believe the President when he tells us that the legislative text that will ultimately be signed into law will accurately reflect what's spelled out in the conceptual text.  That's a dangerous assumption.

At the same time, the President's bill preempts his so-called health care 'summit.'  By unveiling his plan now, many are asking what is the purpose of the summit?

And, even before the summit occurs, there's a renewed effort from the Democrat-controlled Congressional leadership to use a legislative scheme called 'reconciliation' to push health care through.

The reconciliation process was instituted as a means to help Congress comply with the budget.  It was intended to provide a lower vote threshold by which to approve revenue and budget adjustments that were necessary to come into compliance with the budget.  It was never intended to reduce the vote threshold for policy decisions.  Reconciliation should not be used to approve health care reform.

If you examine the Presidents health care plan, it does little to fix a wide array of concerns.  Notably, on the issue of life, the Presidents plan does nothing to change the Senates pro-abortion language.  As a reminder, the Senates language (and now the Presidents plan) allows for federal funding of abortion, so long as the federal government performs an accounting scheme to keep the money that is to be used for abortions separate from other funds.  The fact is under this plan federal dollars are still flowing directly to abortionists for the purpose of performing abortions.

In addition, the Presidents plan does nothing to eliminate the possibility of Planned Parenthood operating clinics inside public schools.  These clinics would be supervised - not by a local governing board - but by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The fact is that the current health care proposals including the Presidents new plan should be scrapped altogether.  It's time to start again.  And, we're counting on you to make a difference.  It's time to have your voice heard.  Sign on to our petition. You can do that here.

As always, we'll bring you the very latest as this unfolds on our daily radio broadcast, Jay Sekulow Live!