Obama Postpones Deadlines that Hurt Him, Enforces Those That Hurt You

In response to HHS to Delay 2014 Obamacare Signups Until After 2014 Midterms:

During the shutdown fight in September and October, President Barack Obama refused any and all proposals to delay the individual mandate. He would not interfere with “settled law,” we were told. A delay could cause the whole policy to fall apart, experts explained. Never mind that he had delayed, by fiat, the employer mandate by a year–unconstitutionally, since it was a deadline written into the law he had signed.

Now, suddenly, the Obama administration is about to delay another deadline–but only by one month, from October, 15 2014 to November 15, 2014, punting the deadline for second-year enrollments beyond Election Day. Last week, he proposed another (illegal) delay, one that would “allow” health insurance companies to keep canceled individual policies active for another year. An impossible task, but politically convenient.

To sum up: when a deadline hurts ordinary Americans, who must either buy insurance through a broken system or else pay a fine to the IRS, Obama says a delay is impossible. But when that deadline might hurt Obama’s political image or his party’s political prospects, out it goes. This is worse than the sort of arbitrary rule-making that F. A. Hayek warned was the consequence of central planning. It is political corruption.