Administration Too Clever by Half by Delaying Second Enrollment in Obamacare

COMMENTARY | In another example of the Obama administration being too clever by half, it has altered the Obamacare law again and has shifted the dates of the second year of health care enrollment to November 5, 2014 to January 15, 2015.

The administration claims that this is to give the insurance companies more time to account for people who came in late for the first round of enrollment. The real reason is a desperate attempt to conceal the horribly high premiums and deductibles and the substandard benefits that are inherent in the Obamacare exchange policies until after the 2014 midterm elections.

As anyone who has bothered to watch the news recently knows, the horrible nature of the Obamacare exchange policies is a horse that has already bolted the stable and in running around pell mell kicking everything and everyone in sight. Moreover, unless something is done, the employer mandate moratorium expires around that time and people with group insurance plans are going to start seeing their premiums skyrocket and themselves kicked into the exchanges by their employers.

It is a maxim in politics and of con artistry that it is alright to be clever but it is toxic to be seen to be clever. The Obama administration might as well be shouting from the roof tops, “We are fooling you now because we think you’re a bunch of rubes.” And why not? A majority of voting Americans did elect that man to the presidency twice. Of course they think they can fool us again, shame on us.

All of this is predicated on the notion that Obamacare actually survives by the fall of 2014. Pressure to somehow fix (repeal) the Obamacare law is going to just increase in the Winter and Spring. Democrats, especially in the Senate, are going to have to choose between ideology and survival. Here is betting that they choose the latter. The only questions are, does the president veto and will it be sustained?