Michael F. Cannon, the Cato Institute’s director of health policy studies, has recently been warning Americans about the ramifications of the U.S. Senate unleashing the “nuclear option” and what it means for the nation’s healthcare industry.
Much of it is related to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Obamacare’s Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) which some, including Glenn Beck, have likened to “death panels.”
Speaking on the Glenn Beck Program Monday, Cannon explained that IPAB “has the power to do all sorts of things that really the Constitution leaves to Congress, like enact or impose taxes…”
“This is supposed to be a 15-member board, but if no one is seated on that board — if the president and the Senate cannot agree on whom the president will appoint… then all of IPAB’s powers fall, all of those legislative powers, fall to the Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius,” he said.
Michael Cannon of CATO on Kathleen Sebelius, Nuclear Option, and IPAB
Michael F. Cannon of the Cato Institute speaks with Glenn Beck on Nov. 25, 2013. (Photo: TheBlaze TV)
Many have wondered why Sebelius hasn’t lost her job amidst the calamitous rollout of Obamacare, and Cannon suggested that it might be related to IPAB and the nuclear option.
“If (President Obama) fires Kathleen Sebelius for breaking the law, for an incompetent rollout of Obamacare, he would then have to nominate a new Secretary of Health and Human Services who would have to be confirmed by the Senate,” Cannon explained. “Now, it would be easier because he could get that appointee through with just 51 votes, but the confirmation hearings would be a bloodbath…

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