Obama's Hometown Paper: Scrap Obamacare

The Chicago Tribune has come out in favor of delaying and re-writing Obamacare, a program they refer to as a “monstrosity.”

Bottom line: Let’s delay and rewrite this ill-conceived law. Congress need not start from scratch. Lawmakers can build on what all of us have learned from three years of painful trial and error. Three years of attempting, but failing, to make this clumsy monstrosity work for the American people.

The newspaper located in President Obama’s hometown of Chicago executes a blistering analysis of the law and how President Obama and Democrats in Congress are attempting to flout it:  

Democrats strong-armed Obamacare into law three years ago. Now they’re busy flouting it.

The mandate that employers provide insurance next year or pay a penalty, as the law requires? Delayed for at least a year.

The law’s dictate that people applying for federal subsidies to buy insurance provide proof that they’re eligible for the government aid? Scaled back.

Sharp limits on Americans’ out-of-pocket costs for health care? Suspended for a year.

Providing members of Congress and more than 10,000 staff members with federal health care subsidies that the law does not allow? Done, via a deal brokered by President Barack Obama.

And on and on.

As the open enrollment implementation date of October 1 approaches, the pressure on Republicans to do whatever it takes to defund the Affordable Care Act has been mounting. The fact that an Obama-friendly paper (the Trib endorsed Obama in 2008 and 2012) like the Chicago Tribune has joined the chorus of those wanting Obamacare scrapped could give cover to lawmakers who have been wringing their hands over the politics of opposing the president on his signature legislation.