Making Obamacare Bureaucrats Play by the Rules

Kevin Burns / July 27, 2011

In one of the most illuminating moments of the Obamacare debate, then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi said “we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”  Pelosi meant that we would learn the truth about the bill after the controversy had died down. However, her words apply to Obamacare more than she knew. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is not really a law, and we still do not know its full affects.

Laws set norms to regulate conduct. Obamacare, like most major laws, does not really do this. Instead, it authorizes administrators to make laws, insofar as they make the rules and regulations to govern our conduct. The public will not know the full implications of Obamacare until after unelected—and usually unknown—agency officials make the rules. (more…)