Metaphors Describing Employer Mandate Delay

What Supporters and Reporters Are Saying about Employer Mandate Delay until 2015 after November 2014 Midterm Elections

One thing that literature would be

greatly better off for

Would be a more restricted employ-

ment by authors of simile and metaphor.

Authors of all races, be they Greeks,

Romans, Teutons, or Celts,

can’t seem to just say anything the thing

it is but have to go out  of their way to say that is like

something else.

Ogden Nash (1902-1971), Very Like a Whale

I’ve been amused and bemused at what Obamacare supporters and reporters have to say about the Obamacare administrator’s delay of the employer mandate.  

Much of their language is couched in similes and metaphors to avoid saying what it is:  a political gamble  to avoid the  lingering  negative effect of one Obamacare provision on the November 2014 midterm elections, upon which Obama's legacy depends.

Peter Orzag, former director  of Office and Management Budget, for Obama,  says the decision is a “wise choice” to avoid the “domino effect” of employers dropping coverage.  Critics may say Obama had a different “domino effect” in mind, cascading negativity over Obamacare leading up to the midterm  elections. One man's domino is another man's puppet show.

Valerie Jarrett,  Obama’s right hand girl on the left, says not to worry, “We will stay on course and on target. It’s full steam ahead.” Aboard the Obamcare steam locomotive, I presume.

Ardis Dee Haven, MD, the AMA’s new president,  does a can-can dance by saying, “We will do whatever we can, whenever we can."

Amie Parnes, writing for The Hill, a congressional newsletter, offers a host  of metaphors,  making up her own and quoting others who call the delay “A black eye,” a “shadow,” “a dent in his legacy, "An idea that turned into a punchline,” “legacy on the line,” “A mountain out of a molehill," ”When you look back at this from 30,000 feet , only the tallest mountain will get seen.”

A New York Post editorial  opines, "The delay reflects complaints of Democrats who don't want to go into the 2014 elections with this health care albatross around their  necks."  An albatross, for those of you not in the know, is a large seabird  who can remain aloft for long periods, a  fitting metaphor for an aloof and aloft president.

The august New York Times editorial board weighed in with "Letting Employers off the Hook,for Now," the implicationn being that sooner  or later, by hook or by crook,  every American will be on the Obamacare hook.

The Wall Street Journal Editors deem Obamacare “ A fiasco for the ages. The provision was supposed to start in January, with delays it is like Ford saying, 'The electric car is ready to go, except the electric battery doesn’t work.' ”

As long as we are on vehicular metaphors,  CBS’s political director says Obamacare is “A jalopy  they  are trying to roll out of the driveway here at Barely Operational.” Not to be outcome, 

Wesley Pruden of the Washington Times,  conjures up another  image of Max Baucus (D-Montana), architect of Obamacare and creator of  Obamacare phrase  as a “train wreck,.  Pruden says Baucus, who is not running for another Senate term, as “hurrying home for good, anxious to avert his eyes from all the hair, teeth, and eyeballs soon to be scattered along the railroad right- of –way.” Keep that up, Senator Baucus, or they'll be calling you"Senator Gore."

Tweet:  The Obamacare decision to delay the employer mandate has produced a wealth of metaphors to describe its political significance.