Resolving the present impasse can only start when Obama, Reid and Pelosi cool their rhetorical jets and start talking reasonably with Boehner and his Republican colleagues. Here’s where reading the political tea leaves is important, because Boehner hinted on Thursday where such talks might go. “With Obamacare proving to be a train wreck, the president’s insistence on steamrolling ahead with this flawed program is irresponsible. We must provide American families basic fairness and the same exemptions from the law that big businesses have already been granted.” In other words, Democratic leaders should concede what everybody else knows — Obamacare isn’t ready for prime time. Obama has already unilaterally changed the law by delaying the employer mandate, so he should now take Boehner’s cue and embrace a delay in the individual mandate to give the government time to fix the technological breakdowns that are plaguing the program. Push back the effective date of Obamacare by a year to Jan. 1, 2015, and let the American people decide in November 2014 whether to repeal the law or revise it. Such a compromise would put both sides on equal footing to make their respective cases to the ultimate decision-makers.
Posted on: Fri, 04 Oct 2013 22:05:45 +0000