"Wise Legislators " pass ACA with IPAB,their "good deed"

Henry J.Aaron,of the Brookings Institute, has written three commentaries in the Perspective section of the NEJM in the last year. He seems to be their go-to guy for IPAB issues.Here is a link to his latest.

He praises Congress for their willingness to "abstain from meddling in matters they are poorly equipped to handle." He seems to be aware of Public Choice theory (he has a PhD in Economics from Harvard) when he talks about the temptation of Congress to spend money for political ends but seems to have missed the point when he apparently assumes that the IPAB panelists would be immune to lobbying efforts.Clearly, he believes it is a good and desirable thing for Congress to delegate its powers to agencies and other bodies- a view somewhat in opposition to how James Madison thought things would work out.

This is in stark contrast with the friend of the court brief that the Pacific Legal Foundation has filed to challenge the constitutionality of the creation of IPAB. See here for their comments on IPAB and a reference link to their brief challenging IPAB.

Aarons likens the creation of IPAB to the creation of the Federal Reserve which was to be an entity not subject to congressional control.

This may not be the best analogy with the increasing efforts of Congress (and not just Ron Paul ) to at least exert some surveillance of what the Fed does.