Death By A Thousand Budget Cuts

Let me point out the obvious:  Republicans plan to make sure Obamacare can't work by cutting funding for it, and then blaming the President.  Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands if not millions of Americans will find themselves in limbo with no health insurance, and at the tender of mercies of GOP governors slashing Medicare.

Don't get sick, America.  It could kill you.

The landmark health law may have survived the Supreme Court, countless repeal efforts and a presidential election — but none of that required Republicans to shower money on Obamacare. And with at least 33 states refusing to build the critical health insurance exchanges, the federal government is unexpectedly on the hook to set them up — and short of money to do so.

The White House requested $1.5 billion more for the health law implementation in its budget Wednesday, but health officials know they’re not likely to get it.

As past funding requests have been spurned, Health and Human Services officials contend they’ve been able to cobble together the funds and won’t miss the Oct. 1 start of open enrollment in exchanges. Any big delay, or major hitches would be a huge blow to Obamacare and reopen the law to political warfare before the 2014 mid-term elections.

“The Supreme Court has ruled, there has been an election, we intend to implement the law,” HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters Wednesday. She acknowledged that without an infusion of new money, she’s probably going to have to keep juggling and scrambling to keep it all on track.

HHS to date hadn’t been very specific about how it’s been moving ahead — even when lawmakers asked. But Sebelius told reporters that the department hadn’t yet spent the full $1 billion that was initially allocated for implementation — a figure that was decided on long before the states balked at exchange-building. Sebelius said the department had been “judicious” in spending it, and officials said approximately $235 million is left in that fund.

Nice.  Meanwhile, let's keep giving $4 billion a year to oil companies who are making tens of billions in profit and keep screaming how we can't afford to make government work.

Assholes.