DELAY, DELAY, DELAY Two weeks ago, President Obama and his administration were adamant that not only would there be no delay in ObamaCare fines set to kick in on Monday, but, in the words of a Department of Health spokeswoman, “In fact, we don’t actually have the statutory authority to extend the open enrollment period in 2014.” So why did the administration on Tuesday night suddenly discover that it did have the power to delay the individual mandate by two weeks? Likely because the central provision of the president’s signature law is a dog with voters. Aside from the early problems with the ObamaCare Web site there’s the fact that many of the uninsured Americans purportedly helped by the new entitlement cannot afford it. That’s not cool in an election year in which Democrats are already set to lose several senate seats, and possibly their majority, due to public outrage over the woe begotten law. The question is will this be enough. Not likely. [Washington Examiner: “Celinda Lake, whose firm Lake Research Partners provided the Democratic analysis of the new George Washington University Battleground Poll released Tuesday morning, summed up her advice to Democrats when it comes to Obamacare: ‘Dont defend it.’”] The delay, which provides two more weeks to enroll for those who will click one box on the ObamaCare Web site isn’t sufficient to calm anxious Senate Democrats pushing a bill that includes a much longer postponement of the fines for the uninsured under the law. The president has tried to keep these red state Democrats on board while not enraging his allies in the insurance industry, who need the fines in place in order to get the customers promised to them by Obama. No fines would mean fewer customers and skyrocketing premiums for all. But that rationale won’t help those endangered Democrats. How long can Obama keep his team together before open rebellion breaks out in the Senate and more ObamaCare “fixes” start flying? Not much longer it would seem.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 17:30:29 +0000
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