On Wednesday, the House will vote on a bill to repeal section 4002 of Obamacare, which established the Prevention and Public Health Fund. The fund, which was authorized for $15 billion in spending over ten years, is quickly becoming a White House slush fund, already doling out $500 million in 2010 for "prevention" initiatives – in short, taxpayer-funded social-engineering efforts. Grants have been given out to a variety of local governments and non-profits to lobby for tax increases and regulatory restrictions on products the government thinks unseemly. While HHS rules prevent lobbying, this is exactly what the money has been used for, being funneled to groups whose explicit intent is to pass legislation that would bar the use of certain consumer products in the name of "public health." This effort is modeled largely on similar nanny-state initiatives in the "stimulus" bill, which spent money on campaigns targeting everything from salt, to soda to tobacco.
Our letter in support of the bill can be found here. H.R. 1217, sponsored by Rep. Joe Pitts, would repeal the entire fund, saving taxpayers $15 billion. Given that the government has failed miserably to monitor its own fiscal health, taxpayers are much better off not heeding – and certainly not funding – any advice on well-being from the feds.