Ironic timing but gives Republicans who control the House the perfect opportunity to start defunding the most controversial, unpopular part of it, the individual mandate tax, which the Supreme Court has just legally defined what Democrats and Barack Obama tried to call a simple "penalty" to which now the public understands it was a huge tax against the middle class.
The House will take up the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act sometime in July, and possibly next week when it returns from the July 4 recess. (The rule governing debate on the bill was already approved last week.) While the Obama administration requested another $1 billion so the IRS can implement the healthcare law, the bill, H.R. 6020, does not give any new money to the IRS.
Additionally, it "prohibits the IRS from receiving transfers from the Department of Health and Human Services to implement the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," according to report language accompanying the bill from the House Appropriations Committee.
The report notes that in 2010, HHS allocated $20 million to the IRS for enforcing the healthcare law "without the Committee's knowledge." It also notes that the IRS received $168 million from HHS to implement the law in 2011, and plans to get another $322 million from HHS in 2012.
"The Committee prohibits further such transfers during fiscal year 2013 in section 106 of this Act," the report states.
The bill would spend a total of $21.5 billion on the IRS, Treasury Department and other related agencies, about 1.7 percent less than the current funding level. The bill increases funding in some areas, such as Small Business Administration business and disaster loans, public safety and education in Washington D.C., and the Treasury Department's anti-terrorism financing programs.
To make up for these increases, the bill makes cuts in several areas, including the executive office of the president.
The bill would have to pass the Senate and be signed by Obama, which is doubtful, but since the House of Representatives does hold the purse strings, they can refuse to pass any bill through that chamber that includes additional money to the IRS to implement Obamacare.
(See Comprehensive List Of Obamacare Tax Hikes With Effective Dates- HERE)