Federal Judge Rules ObamaCare Subsidies Illegally Funded

May Day!  May Day!

On May 12 U.S. Dictrict Court Judge Rosemary Collyer ruled that the Obama administration implemented health exchange subsidies illegally.  

The subsidies would funnel $130 billion to insurers over the next decade.  Only Congress, said the judge,  has the power to appropriate funds.  The House of Representative launched the suit maintained  the subsidies violated the legislative’s branch’s power of the purse.

The decision does not necessarily spell the end  of ObamaCare subsidies, of ObamaCare itself.  The program won’t shut down immediately until the government’s appeal works its way through the system. The administration argues the ruling was due to an “inartful  drafting” of the law.  Similar arguments have been made in two previous  Supreme Court decisions which upheld the constitutionality of the law.   Still,  according to the Wall Street Journal, “there’s a plausible case to be made that the law is a patchwork legislative mess that doesn’t hold together  without a willingness to engage in illegal and unconstitutional implementation.”