In my 2013 series on Obamacare, I warned that the law contained legislative landmines that threaten our healthcare system, our economy and our Constitution.  These landmines are cleverly worded sections that protect the most destructive requirements of Obamacare and prohibit Congress from exercising its Constitutional rights to amend or repeal them.

Thanks to Charles R. Kesler, Professor of Government at ClaremontCollege, one of the most dangerous of these landmines has been brought to light.  In an October 21, 2013 speech that he has adapted for the January, 2014 issue of “Imprimis,” Kesler explains that not only is this provision unconstitutional, but the means by which it is protected is unconstitutional as well.

This landmine is the Independent Payments Advisory Board (IPAB).  In the Imprimis article, Kesler reveals the unconstitutional nature of this Board:  “IPAB consists of 15 members who are not elected by the people but appointed by the President.  Their job is to make recommendations to limit Medicare’s budget by reducing reimbursements to doctors.  Unless both houses of Congress overrule IPAB by passing their own equal or greater cuts to Medicare, IPAB’s proposals automatically become law.” 

Notice that the first part of the landmine is this:  while the Board is appointed and makes recommendations, as many boards do, “IPAB’s proposals automatically become law.”  Obamacare buries that usurpation of Congress deep in the verbiage. 

Let’s just dissolve the IPAB, then, you say?  Not so fast.  Kesler reveals the second and most insidious part of the IPAB/Obamacare landmine, “…no resolution to repeal it [IPAB] can be introduced [in Congress] before January 1, 2017, or after February 1, 2017.  In other words, the Constitution would be operational for one month only – and even then the repeal must pass by August 15, 2017, in order to be valid and it could not take effect until 2020!”

Does that sound constitutional?  Not in the Constitution of our Founders, nor in mine or yours, for that matter.

Maybe you’re skeptical.  Maybe you want to look up the IPAB and see for yourself.  You should, but try to find it – it’s buried.  I’ll give you a hint:  Obamacare gives these powers to the “Independent Medicare Advisory Board.”  Then, in the preamble to Sec. 3403, it sneaks in this name change:

“Section 1320(b) provides the following name change: ‘‘Any reference

in the provisions of, or amendments made by, section 3403

to the ‘Independent Medicare Advisory Board’ shall be deemed to

be a reference to the ‘Independent Payment Advisory Board’ ’’

Slick, huh?  The IPAB has no powers directly described in the law, until, that is, you happen upon that name change, tucked away from curious eyes. 

The IPAB is just one example of the landmines that Obamacare has buried in order to blow up any attempts to understand it, let alone oppose it.  I suppose the first landmine was, “You have to pass it before you can read it.”  See for yourself.

Thanks to Charles R. Kesler and Imprimis.  Passages quoted here are “Reprinted by permission from Imprimis, a publication of Hillsdale College.”