Free Republic

Surprise! The individual mandate has been watered down by the White House to the point that it barely exists at all. That's the conclusion of a piece at Politico which confirms what many conservatives were saying about the mandate two weeks ago. Titled "Honey, I shrunk the mandate," the piece highlights exemption 14, which was added to the list of possible hardship exemptions in December. It notes that under exemption 14 practically anyone can claim a hardship exemption and documentation is requested "if possible." In other words, documentation is optional. While the Politico piece accurately frames these exemptions to the...

With many political debates, I try to give opponents the benefit of the doubt on intentions. Sure, raising taxes is a bad thing, but some politicians and pundits believe higher taxes will benefit society. Some people think we need to spend more, and others really fear climate change.When it comes to the HHS abortifacient/contraception/sterilization mandate, however, I’ve almost stopped being that generous with the left’s media and thought leaders. This New York Times Magazine editorial is a prime example as to why. Almost from start to finish, the piece misleads and misdirects readers about the mandate, its opponents, and religious...

Does our Constitution guarantee the freedom of religion, or does it merely allow a more limited freedom to worship? The difference is profound. Worship is an event. Religion is a way of life. Specifically, does the First Amendment guarantee believers of all faiths the freedom to practice their ethics, educate their children and operate family businesses based on their religious beliefs, moral convictions and freedom of conscience? Do Americans have the freedom to place our beliefs and ethics at the center of our business practices — or must we ignore them when we form a company? These questions will be...

Treasury Department officials didn't check to make sure they had the legal authority to delay an Obamacare mandate before issuing guidance that flouted the text of the law, a department official told House investigators. Treasury Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy Mark Mazur, who announced the employer mandate delay in a blog post, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that he didn't remember anyone considering the legal basis for the delay. "Did anyone in the Department of the Treasury inquire into the legal authority for the delays?" Mazur was asked. "I don't recall anything along those lines, no," he...

Health Care: Some think Democrats designed ObamaCare to fail so they could get to a single payer system. Seems a bit extreme. But it does help explain why they made the individual mandate so easy to avoid. According to ObamaCare's architects, the individual mandate is key to making the law work. The mandate is supposed to force young and healthy people to enroll so they can subsidize premiums for the older and sicker. Otherwise, ObamaCare rates will spiral out of control. (Which already appears to be happening, according to TheHill.com.) The mandate is also supposed to prevent gaming the system...

Next week, probably the most egregious regulatory measure under this administration gets its time in the Supreme Court: The HHS abortifacient/contraception/sterilization mandate.As most people know, the mandate was initiated on January 20, 2012, and sparked an immediate backlash. Many people were bothered morally because of the anti-life components of the mandate, while organizations across the country were disturbed at how it failed to offer an appropriately broad religious exemption from the mandate.Despite several “compromises,”most of which were largely accounting gimmicks, there have been dozens of lawsuits by non-profit and for-profit organizations. According to the Alliance Defense Freedom (ADF), which represents...

Next Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments concerning constitutional challenges to Obamacare’s contraception mandate brought by Hobby Lobby Stores and Conestoga Wood Specialties … Neither company objects to birth control, per se. Indeed, both provide coverage to their employees for most types of contraception. Yet civilization as we know it will collapse if the justices rule in their favor, according to the increasingly shrill prognostications of panicky liberals. Such a decision, progressives shriek, would constitute a victory for the dark forces behind the “war on women,” erode employee protections against discrimination, and dramatically reduce access to health care...

The White House will not delay the “individual mandate” at the core of Obamacare, a top Administration official said Sunday. “That will not happen,” top White House advisor Dan Pfeiffer said Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press, amid Republican calls for a delay of the requirement that Americans have health insurance by March 31 or incur a fine assessed with their 2013 tax return. The original deadline, Feb. 15, was extended amid the disastrous rollout of the administrations website for policy shopping, healthcare.gov. The administration has already delayed the law’s employer coverage requirements.

.... But amid the post-rollout political backlash, last week the agency created a new category: Now all you need to do is fill out a form attesting that your plan was cancelled and that you "believe that the plan options available in the [ObamaCare] Marketplace in your area are more expensive than your cancelled health insurance policy" or "you consider other available policies unaffordable." This lax standard—no formula or hard test beyond a person's belief—at least ostensibly requires proof such as an insurer termination notice. But people can also qualify for hardships for the unspecified nonreason that "you experienced another...

He forgot to mention it. Minor oversight, could have happened to anybody.The mandate, remember, has already been suspended this year for people who had their old insurance canceled and who now regard it as a “hardship” to purchase insurance on the supposedly affordable Affordable Care Act exchanges. For them, as Ezra Klein put it at the time, “ObamaCare itself is the hardship.” But there’s an obvious problem with that scheme: The “hardship” exemption applies only to people who used to have insurance, and it applies only for this enrollment period. The mandate penalty would continue to bite people who...

In the interest of an informed debate, we've compiled a list of job actions with strong proof that ObamaCare's employer mandate is behind cuts to work hours or staffing levels. As of Jan. 31, our ObamaCare scorecard included 401 employers with more than 100 school districts among them. Recently, IBD explained that a big minimum wage hike alongside the employer mandate would add to pressure on employers to cut workers to part-time, complicating the goal of reducing inequality. Click on the employer names in the list below for links to supporting records, mostly news accounts or official documents.We'll continue to...

Health Care: ObamaCare is turning out like the nine-headed Hydra monster of Greek mythology. Every time President Obama tries to lop off one of its failures, two more emerge. Recent news provides a good case in point. On Wednesday, Obama decreed that those who had plans they liked before ObamaCare could keep them for two more years. The move helped solve a huge political problem Obama himself created when he first made it possible for some people to keep plans they liked. Obama had allowed just a one-year extension — where he gets the authority to do any of this...

The House of Representatives passed legislation Wednesday afternoon to make the fine/“tax” for violating Obamacare’s individual mandate $0 for this year, and it did so by the wide margin of 90 votes (250 to 160). That’s 83 more than the 7-vote margin (219 to 212) by which Obamacare passed the House four Marches ago. Moreover, 27 Democrats voted for today’s legislation—27 more than the number of Republicans who voted for Obamacare when it passed. In all, 223 Republicans voted for today’s bill, while only one—Paul Broun of Georgia—voted against it. Here’s the member-by-member tally for the vote. Earlier today, the...

Local governments, community colleges and other public employers are cutting work hours among part-time employees to prepare for coming mandates under Obamacare, according to the New York Times. President Obama twice has delayed the law’s “employer mandate,” which will require large employers to provide health insurance or pay fines. It starts in 2016 for midsize employers and will phase in starting in 2015 for employers of 100 workers or more. But public sector employers are trimming back work hours now, because their obligations will be based on data from this year, the Times reported.

The University of Notre Dame must provide birth control to employees and students after a federal appeals court ruled Friday, a move the school says will force it to violate its religious beliefs. In a blow to religious colleges and universities across the country, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago denied Notre Dame's request for an injunction to the ObamaCare birth control mandate that requires the school to provide coverage for contraception. The injunction would have given Notre Dame a temporary reprieve from the birth control mandate, as the Roman Catholic school challenges the rule in court....

Democrat Rep. Nancy Pelosi said in a press conference today that even though the Obama administration has unilaterally delayed Obamacare’s implementation nearly 30 times, there is one delay that will not happen: the individual mandate. A reporter asked Pelosi, who was House Speaker when Obamacare passed: “The administration announced another delay of the employer mandate on obamacare or the affordable care act. Do you think that opens up wiggle room for Democrats to vote to delay the employee mandate that the employees are now required to but, and if so, why not?” Pelosi fired back: “No, it is a completely...

Calling the Obama administration “the most tone deaf to religious liberty issues in recent memory,” Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput warned that religious freedom in the U.S. is “at risk,” and that “the more government mandates evil action, the more likely civil disobedience becomes.” Last February, Chaput urged his fellow prelates to take the “right action…whatever the cost” regarding the Health and Human Services’ contraceptive mandate, which requires nearly all insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act to pay for sterilization, contraceptives, and abortion-inducing drugs. …

As the country's first 'Imperial President' threatens to rule by Executive fiat and just simply run-over the Republicans' feckless leadership, he's also made clear he intends to continue ongoing, previous strategies (lie, obfuscate, and withhold) he's utilized thus far. The latest example of unconstitutional+underhanded mischief from the habitually-dishonest Obama was unearthed by Megyn Kelly on Fox Monday night, when in the course of researching the ObamaCare Employer Mandate delay they found 'on one little nugget... found under a mountain of new regulations': any employer who dare “reduce the size of its workforce or its overall hours of service of its employees' will...

Judge Napolitano with Megyn Kelly on the Kelly File about Obama's Abuse of Power Discussion of national security regarding allowing those with limited contact with terrorists to enter the US. Obamacare employer mandate delay until 2016. Obama can NOT create a crime.

The White House on Monday dismissed concerns by retiring Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), who in a radio interview on Monday said he didn't think enough young, healthy consumers would purchase ObamaCare policies. Moran told WAMU that millennials "are less likely to sign up" for health insurance on the federal exchanges. "I think they feel more independent, I think they feel a little more invulnerable than prior generations," Moran says. "But I don't think we're going to get enough young people signing up to make this bill work as it was intended to financially." Healthcare experts have warned of a so-called...