“The Law of the Land” Is One Big Mess
Last week, many press stories focused on Obamacare’s status as “the law of the land,” attempting to emphasize that the 2700-page measure is “here to stay.” But based on a sampling of recent quotes, what President Obama wants “to stay” in his second term is a jumbled-up mess of bureaucratic and regulatory chaos and confusion:
- State exchanges are “not going to be ready;”
- “If I could wave a magic wand and change [the start] from 2014 to 2015, I would….[Meeting the law’s deadlines] is going to be really hard;”
- “The timeline is definitely getting crunched.”
And those quotes are comments from three different supporters of the law – individuals and groups working on Obamacare’s implementation. These sample quotes come from but one article among many outlining the federal government’s many difficulties in implementing the law – illustrating perfectly its unworkable, Rube Goldberg-esque nature.
Late yesterday, HHS announced yet another implementation delay, allowing states an extra month to decide whether or not to establish a state-based Exchange. But with even supporters of the law publicly admitting that the complex, bureaucratic measure is not ready for prime time, why would states want to accept political responsibility for Washington’s chaos by creating their own Exchanges – thereby going down with a sinking ship?