Christopher Ruddy: Don't Delay Obamacare

I'm baffled by calls from opponents of Obamacare to delay implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

There is growing support among Democrats, and perhaps even the White House, to support a delay.

Now, a number of conservatives I respect are among those who support a one-year delay as a first step toward abolishing Obamacare. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is now seeking to delay implementation of the individual mandate for at least six months.

The thinking apparently is that once Obamacare is fully in force, it will be with us forever. I believe that is not necessarily the case.

Editor’s Note: New 'Obamacare Survival Guide' Reveals Dangers Ahead for Your Healthcare

The key to stopping Obamacare is for its opponents to win in congressional elections in 2014. Delaying Obamacare only helps the Democrats who support this boondoggle.

Just look at the poll numbers showing widespread opposition to Obamacare. A CNN poll last month disclosed that 57 percent of Americans now oppose the bill, and just 39 percent support it. An earlier survey by a Heritage Foundation affiliate found that 77 percent of respondents opposed Obamacare.

Even the labor unions that backed Obama and had supported his healthcare reform bill have now turned against it over concerns that members could lose their current healthcare coverage, and the powerful AFL-CIO is calling for significant changes in the law.

To top it off, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat who helped write the Affordable Care Act, has admitted that the law has become a "huge train wreck."

President Obama maintains that his election and re-election demonstrated support for the bill.

The truth is that neither election was a referendum on Obamacare. In 2008 he ran against the George W. Bush legacy, and in 2012 against Mitt Romney, making Romney the issue.
But the 2014 elections could prove to be that referendum on Obamacare — a vote that produces a Republican landslide.

By Election Day next year, young people who backed Obama will have seen the law's full wrath in skyrocketing insurance premiums or the fines they will have to pay for not carrying insurance.

In fact, Americans who are currently insured and small businesses will see premiums soar, while Medicare recipients will be harmed by $700 billion in Medicare cuts and reduced payments to providers.

So let Obamacare be implemented and allow the voters to decide come 2014.

Already Obama has shown that he wants delays and has made revisions to the law, including arbitrarily delaying implementation of the employer mandate to provide insurance — despite the fact that he has no constitutional right to change the law passed by Congress.

Columnist George Will wrote: "Where does the Constitution confer upon presidents the 'executive authority' to ignore the separation of powers by revising laws?"

Another columnist, Charles Krauthammer, observed: "The Constitution says the executive has to faithfully execute the laws and here it is faithfully ignoring a law it doesn't like."

Editor’s Note: New 'Obamacare Survival Guide' Reveals Dangers Ahead for Your Healthcare

I am shocked that as Republican members seek to help Obama get his law delayed, there has been no uproar in Congress about the president's decision to begin ruling by decree. But on Oct. 1, the day when the Affordable Care Act was supposed to allow access to the new healthcare exchanges, Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the administration's decision to delay the employer mandate for a year.

The suit was filed on behalf of Florida dentist Dr. Larry Kawa, who declared: "The president has no more power than you or I do to change the law."

Obama is afraid that if the law is fully implemented, there will be a massive blowback against the Democrats who support it going into the critical 2014 elections.

The blowback is becoming evident as Americans see firsthand the unfolding disaster of the $300 million healthcare website that doesn't work.

So, let's not play Obama's delay game. Let the law go into effect as required and let the voters decide next November about its future.