Op-Ed: The Sebelius shakedown and the Obamacare failure

Published June 3, 2013 4:00am ET



On Tuesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will testify before Congress about her latest (potentially unethical, potentially illegal) stunt to fundraise for Obamacare. For the last couple weeks, she’s flown largely under the radar with America’s focus firmly on the abuses of the Internal Revenue Service and Justice Department. But finally, she’ll have to answer for her actions.

Earlier this month, it was revealed that Sebelius has gone to various undisclosed health care companies asking for money to promote Obamacare. That money will go to an outside group that will help implement the cost-increasing law. The problem here is two-fold: First, Congress didn’t authorize the department to spend money in this way. Second, it could be a conflict of interest if she asked for money from companies that her department regulates. In other words, if they didn’t do as she wished, she would have the power to come after them. Before you assume that the federal government is above such behavior, consider the IRS.

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