Two Sites Independently Suggest Obama Could Heroically Delay Individual Mandate

Two stories from separate publications on the same day suggest a delay in the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate will bring relief to hurting Americans–a delay initiated by Barack Obama, not Congress.

The two stories, one in New York Magazine and a second at Bloomberg News, both hinted that a delay in the individual mandate would be a great idea that will “help” Obama “fix” everything. It is presented as a good thing instead of an indication of big-government failure.

On Tuesday, New York magazine’s Jonathan Chait posted a piece saying that Obama “could delay the individual mandate on his own” without any action by Congress.

This action would be a beneficial move, Chait says. “The real upside here is that, because it doesn’t require Congress, the administration could use a mandate delay to actually improve the functioning of the law, as opposed to using it to destroy the law, as Republicans in Congress have suggested.”

Chait is named among a list of bloggers who met off-the-record with President Obama less than a week ago–Thursday, October 17th.

The same day as Chait’s suggestion, a Bloomberg piece by writers Nicholas Bagley and Austin Frakt says that with a delay in the mandate, “the Obama administration could spare the uninsured from being punished just because government officials couldn’t build a few websites on time.”

Note that, like the IRS Tea Party scandal, no responsibility goes to the President for the failures of his administration; it is merely the fault of some amorphous “government officials.” Notice also that the delay is characterized as a way Obama himself will “spare” the average schmo from being hurt.