ObamaCare’s Delayed Political Time Bombs Set to Explode

Delay is preferable to error.

Letter from Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 1792

President Obama is a master not only of timely executive action but of timely executive delays.

He has initiated 38 delays at last count. These delays have time fuses, most set to go off just before or just after the midterm elections. These delays of what to do have a strong political flavor rather than a medical coloring, the naming of Ron Klain, a lawyer and political insider, as Ebola “Czar” being the latest example.

The delays include:

• Delay of the employer mandate and $2000 penalties for violating that mandate

• Delays in the individual mandate and paying the $95 penalty for not being insured

• Delays in announcing premium increases in key election states, such as Colorado, Iowa, and Florida

• Delays until after midterms in announcing those millions of health plan cancellations

• A delay in starting that second health care exchange enrollment period until November 15, 2014

• Delays in Medicaid and health exchange expansions, which will expand the national budget deficit

These delays are understandable politically, for their implementation would manage Democrat political prospects.

But like all time bombs, the delays have time fuses that cannot be delayed indefinitely and have an end point.

That end point is the November 4 midterm elections. How to switch from delays to implementation or continuing the delays or even repealing or replacing the health law with a market-based alternative will depend on the outcome of the elections on the national Congressional level and at state houses.