Pat Buchanan: Not Fair to Delay Employer Mandate, but Keep Individual Mandate

It isn't fair for employers to get an extra year to provide health care for their employees, but still force those employees to buy health insurance, says conservative commentator Pat Buchanan.

"This is a bit of a fiasco," Buchanan said Wednesday on "Hannity."

Hundreds of thousands of workers rely on employers to provide insurance, Buchanan said. But they now are essentially being told to find it for themselves or the Internal Revenue Service, which is enforcing the mandate, will be after them.

"Why doesn't the President of the United States say we'll do the employer thing for a year, let's hold off the individual mandate for a year," Buchanan said.

"Barack Obama and the Democrats came down on the side of the big, evil business guys and not the average American," host Sean Hannity said. "It's an interesting twist."

The move was clearly timed to help Democrats in the midterm elections, Hannity said, but liberal talk show host Leslie Marshall said she doesn't think it will help them.

"The majority of the American people don't want this," Marshall said. "I don't think it would make a difference at all with regard to the elections."