Today, Americans for Tax Reform and its spending affiliate, the Center for Fiscal Accountability, submitted a letter to the Energy and Commerce Subcommitte on Health in support of a bill that would repeal an expensive section of the health care law. From our letter:

We write to urge support of your bill to repeal Section 4002 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Section 4002 establishes a health care slush fund that could cost taxpayers over $15 billion over the next decade, while funding special interest lobbying efforts to increase the burden of government.

The slush fund, labeled the Prevention and Public Health Fund, was both authorized and appropriated under the health care bill. As such, monies for the fund can be disbursed with no additional scrutiny by Congress and with no bearing on whether grants are achieving their objectives or if those goals are worthy of continued taxpayer support. There is strong evidence to believe they are not.

Designed under the auspices of improving public health, this program has become little more than a taxpayer-funded exercise in social engineering, with grant monies being used to lobby state and local governments to increase taxes and regulations on consumer goods. Many grant recipients have explicitly stated the federal funds were intended for introducing legislation, promoting increased taxes and advocating for higher prices on goods deemed objectionable by the grantees.

Click here to read the entire letter.