President Barack Obama's signature health-care law was dealt another blow as a federal judge ruled two of its key provisions violate the Constitution by spending money that hasn't been appropriated by Congress.
The ruling Thursday by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer in Washington was a victory for the Republican-led House of Representatives, which claimed the law illegally directs public money to tax credits that make insurance premiums more affordable, and to reductions in deductibles and other “cost sharing” methods used by insurers. Collyer put her ruling on hold pending an appeal.
The legislators said the disbursements will total $175 billion over a decade and weren't approved by Congress.
The White House's Office of Management and Budget and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell were wrongfully spending money before Congress had approved it, the judge said. She called their defense in the case “unpersuasive.”
“The secretaries ignore their own actions and focus instead on congressional inaction,” Collyer said. “It strains credulity to suggest that OMB or HHS submitted a multibillion-dollar budget request without analyzing the relevant statutes.”
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