What delays may come

In response to New HHS Delay Desperate and Futile:

I also find myself wondering whether the delay of sticker shock until after the election will count for much, against the sky-shattering outrage generated by the employer market blowing up.  Of course, you never know what other delays this lawless Administration might decide to implement between now and then.  

All that “settled law of the land” bluster was always extra-funny because Barack Obama is the undisputed world champion of violating the Affordable Care Act.  It’s putty in his hands, a warrant for unlimited power that transcends the Constitution.  He’s more powerful than ever after the nuclear option in the Senate.  He’s either going to use that power to protect Democrats in 2014… or to change the nation in ways that a Republican Senate majority can’t undo, come 2015.

So maybe today’s enrollment delay is a pawn moved in advance of a longer, larger game to come.  I’m sure gigantic pressures will be brought to bear on insurance companies to keep their mouths shut until after the election.  The White House has trillions of dollars’ worth of carrots and sticks to use on them.  Some sort of back-channel deal to mitigate the political fallout from insurance cancellations and premium increases until after the 2014 election, with the promise of 2015 bailout money to mitigate the financial damage to providers?