For President Obama, A Punting Situation

SNAFU- Situation Normal, A Fouled Up

World War II Saying

For President Obama,  it’s a punting situation.  For the moment, the ObamaCare situation is all fouled up.    The public  opposes  his game plan by 59% to 40%.   With three weeks to go,  5 months after the October 2013 launch,   only 3.3 million    have signed up and paid  on the exchanges,  far short of his 7 million goal.  

 

The enrolling of the uninsured,  his main goal,  disapprove of ObamaCare by 47% to 23%.   More than half still don’t know about the exchanges.   And according to John Podhoretz, a critic, they don’t  want to part of the system,  preferring to stuff their cash in a mattress, and drop it into tin cans in the basement. ( “The ObamaCare Disaster Is Now Undeniable,” Commentary,  March 2014).   Only 10% of the uninsured have bothered to enroll.

To make the situation, worse,  the House of Representations have  just passed a bill,   HR, 4118, which would delay the Individual Mandate, the main strut holding  up ObamaCare, by 250 to 160,  with 27 Democrats joining Republicans in the vote. 

For President Obama,  it is clearly a punting situation.   To punt or not to punt, that is the question.   If he does not punt and elects to grind out yardage,   vulnerable Democrats who voted for ObamaCare stand to lose more ground.  The Republicans may then win the Senate and  further tarnish his legacy.   

 If he punts by suspending  the Individual mandate for a year until after the midterms ,  he is admitting ObamaCare  is not working.  But at least by doing so,   his law still lives and may be  resuscitated later in his term .

In any event, according to Ed Rodgers , a Republican partisan writing in the March 6 Washington Post, “Get Ready for the ObamaCare ‘Big Punt’”,  gird your loins and prepare yourselves for President Obama punting rather trying to advance the ball.

To punt or not to punt that is the question:

Whether ‘tis nobler for the cause to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous  fortune, 

Or to take up arms against the sea of troubles.

And by ending them? to live to survive

To gain ground, another day. another play.

Tweet:   President Obama faces a tough decision, whether to suspend the individual mandate, or to endure Democratic losses.