Free Republic

One by one, the myths of the Affordable Care Act have been revealed. When the curtain on open enrollment falls on March 31, the last remaining big myth of ObamaCare will be fully exposed: The individual mandate has failed. After a last-ditch effort with President Obama himself encouraging "young invincibles" to sign up before the deadline, the administration is scrambling to boost enrollment. On Tuesday, the White House announced that people who applied for coverage on the federal health-insurance exchange will have until mid-April to finish the paperwork. The mandate was supposed to be the administration's magical elixir for the...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: The Regime "is set to announce another major delay in implementing the Affordable Care Act, easing election pressure on Democrats." That is the opening line in TheHill.com story. They're not even bothering to hide the purpose of this. They're not doing this for the people. What this is... Remember when Obama promised you that you could keep your plan if you like it and keep your doctor? And then all of a sudden you couldn't, and then everybody started reminding Obama that he lied 23 or 24 times about this? And a powerful lie. I mean, this...

When President Obama told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in March 2012 that "after my election I have more flexibility," most assumed he was referring to foreign policy. It turns out Mr. Obama's ambitions weren't so limited. Earlier this week, Mr. Obama demonstrated his imperial flexibility again, delaying another important provision of the Affordable Care Act. For firms with 50-99 employees, the president waived until 2016 the requirement they provide health insurance or pay a fine. Also, companies with 100 or more workers can avoid most of the law's penalties if they provide coverage to at least 75% of their workforce....

Old and busted: Businesses will love ObamaCare for its cost savings in health care! New hotness: Businesses had better not make staffing decisions based on cost savings from ObamaCare-fueled price spikes! After its latest delay in implementing the employer mandate, the Obama administration rebuffed criticisms that the law incentivizes employers to shift to part-time work by announcing the Treasury Inquisition — ahem, excuse me, the Treasury Attestation Department: The latest announcement comes after the administration heard from businesses about their concerns with the looming ObamaCare rules. However, the change is sure to raise more questions about the health and implementation...

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration will phase in a requirement that large employers provide their workers with health benefits in 2015 and 2016, offering businesses more relief from the so-called employer mandate in the president’s health law. Under regulations issued Monday, only employers with more than 100 full-time workers will be subject to fines in 2015 unless they offer coverage. The requirement that all employers with more than 50 full-time employees provide health benefits or pay fines – which was supposed to begin in 2014 under the Affordable Care Act – will not take effect until 2016. snip

While Washington debates over what is the proper explanation of the CBO's report which explicitly states that millions of workers will drop out of the labor force over the next decade thanks to Obamacare, Obama himself may have finally thrown in the towel, realizing that the longer the full implementation of Obamacare is delayed, the longer the myth that it is a viable Ponzi scheme - as opposed to non-viable - can persist. Perhaps this explains why AP reports that the White House is now considering an extension of the president's decision to let people keep their individual insurance policies...

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...

Reacting to the troubled rollout of President Obama's health care law, 10 Democratic senators led by New Hampshire's Jeanne Shaheen have signed a letter asking Obama to extend the enrollment period for individuals to purchase insurance through the new exchanges. However, not only would such an extension require an act of Congress (as I detailed in an earlier post), but it's likely to ruffle the feathers of insurers, who were counting on enrollment ending on March 31. Why would insurers be bothered? After all, wouldn’t they want to give Americans as much time as possible to purchase their product? Though...

Over the next two weeks, the sad spectacle that is Washington will be on full display as Congress and President Obama debate yet another short-term spending plan, also known as a continuing resolution (CR). Early in my Senate term, I realized these short-term CR's were a miserable way to run the federal government and decided I would not go along with this budgetary charade again. I came to the Senate to solve real problems and eliminate the biggest threats standing in the way of the 21st century being another exceptional American century. The people of Florida who I work for...