Well even the Democrats are questioning Obamacare now. Democratic Senator from West Virginia, Joe Manchin, says he now wants the individual mandate portion of the Affordable Care Act to be delayed by a year. This would be a part of a compromise between both parties to get a budget deal done. By pushing back the implementation of the individual mandate, that effectively pushes back the entirety of the law. We already know that the administration has decided to delay the online enrollment deadline.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Manchin said, “Don’t put the mandate on the American public right now…Give them at least a year. If you know you couldn’t bring the corporate sector, you gave them a year, don’t you think it’d be fair?” Clearly Senator Manchin gets it. The administration is bending over backwards to appease their big business contributors by allowing them another year to get their employees covered. But yet, us regular Joes are stuck buying into this incompetent system.
Although this is not quite a complete flip of party allegiance on the health care law, Manchin is clearly questioning the bill and is looking to find a middle ground. This may actually be a good compromise if the Senate puts Obamacare funding back into the House-passed budget, which defunded it.
With voting scheduled for Friday, the Republican senators only have a few hours left to convince their Democratic colleagues to defund Obamacare. Perhaps with Manchin on their side, Republicans have a better chance in reaching out to the Democrats.