Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday defended President Donald Trump's decision to end some $7 billion in subsidies to the nation's insurance companies, saying that legally the appropriations must have come from Congress, and that did not happen.
"A federal judge has already held that is the case," Sessions told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program.
"The Congressional Research Service also held that some time ago. So the president has decided that we need to end this process and get on a lawful basis."
Initially, when the Affordable Care Act was passed, then-President Barack Obama asked Congress to appropriate the money for the subsidies, Sessions explained, but "he had difficulty with that, so they just started spending the money on their own."
That, said the attorney general, was unconstitutional, because "the executive branch cannot spend money, under the Constitution, that the legislative branch has not appropriated."
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a former Democratic representative, has threatened to sue the government over the subsidies, calling the decision to end the "sabotage" and saying that millions will be left without coverage, but Sessions said it is up to Congress to fix the ACA.
"Congress has got to get together," said Sessions. "Republicans and Democrats have to come on board. They have got to develop a plan that will actually work. It cannot continue in this fashion. It is in a death spiral it seems to me. All I can say is that we're confident that the judge in Virginia that has already ruled on this is correct. And that, these expenditures cannot go on without Congress' support."
Sessions also commented on the nation's sanctuary cities after saying in the past he'd like to cut off funding to them.
"We would like not to have a problem," he said. "We would like for them to get every grant that comes out of the Department of Justice because we would like for them to be in cooperation with federal officers ... they're prohibited from telling federal officers that they have somebody that has been convicted of a serious crime, that is due to be deported."
Sessions said that only law enforcement grants could be cut off, not other federal funds such as for Medicare or highways.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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