Before Speaker John Boehner was unceremoniously shown the door, he sued the Obama administration for funding Obamacare despite the House never authorizing the spending. Artice I, Section 9, clause 7 of the U.S. constitution reads:
No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.
The Obama administration was using other sources of funding to pay for its Obamacare processes, and U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary Collyer has ruled that method unconstitutional.
David Savage writes at the LA Times:
The Constitution says “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law,” Collyer noted, but the administration has continued to pay billions to insurers for their extra cost of providing health coverage.
“Paying [those] reimbursements without an appropriation thus violates the Constitution,” she wrote. “Congress is the only source for such an appropriation, and no public money can be spent without one.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan called the ruling “a historic win for the Constitution and the American people. The court ruled that the administration overreached by spending taxpayer money without approval from the people’s representatives.”
