 |
Citizens Against Government Waste...
Porker of the Month
Hall of Shame
Porker of the Month is a dubious honor given to lawmakers, government
officials, and political candidates who have shown a blatant disregard
for the interests of taxpayers.
CAGW Names Sebelius
Porker of the Month
5/20/11
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW)
named Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius
its May Porker of the Month for the consistently murky process by which
HHS grants or denies waivers from the Patient Protection and Affordable
Care Act (PPACA). Sec. Sebelius received the dubious honor in the
wake of preferential treatment HHS granted to the American Association
of Retired Persons (AARP), which aggressively supported the new
healthcare law prior to its passage in 2010 but is seeking relief from
the law now. AARP is just one of 1,372 unions, businesses, and
insurers, covering 3.1 million Americans, that have received waivers
from the PPACA’s onerous regulatory burdens.
“It is disgraceful that Sec. Sebelius is arbitrarily choosing when to
enforce the mandates of a bill that just one year ago she claimed would
be universally embraced by the American public,” said CAGW President
Tom Schatz. “Clearly, groups like AARP do not view the bill as
quite the expansion of choice or affordability in healthcare that the
administration claimed it would be.” Numerous CEOs and business
owners, including at Starbucks, White Castle, IHOP, and the National
Council of Chain Restaurants, have expressed deep concern about the
impact of PPACA, stating that its provisions and mandates will
dramatically drive up their costs, forcing them to lay off workers in
order to remain solvent.
On May 17, 2011, the White House issued a statement trying to justify
its capricious waiver-granting process, saying that HHS has the power
to “issue temporary waivers from the annual limit provision of the law
if it would disrupt access to existing insurance arrangements or
adversely affect premiums, causing people to lose coverage,” which is
exactly what the new bill was supposed to prevent. In addition,
it is unclear how the annual limit provision will avoid similar
problems in the future. The White House simply explains that the
waivers “will not be available beginning in 2014 when annual limits are
banned and all Americans will have affordable coverage options.”
“One of the many objectionable elements of the PPACA was the
unprecedented level of unchecked power that will accrue to the
secretary of HHS; the unaccountable nature of this waiver frenzy is
just a first taste of the new imperial bent of the secretary’s
position,” added Schatz. “On March 22, 2010, one day after the
PPACA was passed in the Senate, Sec. Sebelius predicted that ‘once
people understand what’s in the bill … they’ll be very enthusiastic
about what Congress did last night.’ Instead, it has become clear
that businesses are wary of what this bill will do to their bottom
line, and that it will not control costs or improve healthcare
outcomes. We are still three years away from the full
implementation of the PPACA and that date is looking more and more
ominous as it approaches. The time has come to give all Americans
a waiver from this monstrosity by repealing the PPACA in its entirety.”
For the disjointed manner with which her department has been handing
out regulatory relief to businesses that want an egress from the
increasingly sickly PPACA, CAGW names HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius
its May 2011 Porker of the Month.
Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit
organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and
mismanagement in government. Porker of the Month is a dubious
honor given to lawmakers, government officials, and political
candidates who have shown a blatant disregard for the interests of
taxpayers.
Read it at CAGW
|
