Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann claimed that the White House will continue to push the Obamacare enrollment deadline “to infinity and beyond” — or at least until they have enrollment numbers they can tout for political gain.
Bachmann spoke to Fox News’ Neil Cavuto on Wednesday about the delay, which allows people to visit HealthCare.gov and check a box claiming they are unable to sign up before the March 31 deadline. This would give individuals another two or three weeks to enroll in a healthcare plan offered on the federal exchange.
“Isn’t it a wonderful world?” the congresswoman said sarcastically. “The administration gets to have it any way they want to have it. All their promises about Obamacare completely hypocritical, they didn’t come through. And now this, more of the same. Unfortunately it is the continuation of lawlessness from the administration.”
“And I feel sorry, honestly, for the people who are trying to be the administrators of Obamacare,” Bachmann continued. “How in the world do they know what to comply with? Do you either follow the law as it’s written, or are you responsible for watching [White House press secretary] Jay Carney’s press conferences to figure out what the law is?” (RELATED: Sebelius: Obamacare enrollment numbers are ‘very low’)
Cavuto noted that, since the delay counts on the “honor system,” it would be possible for anyone to avoid the individual penalty by simply pretending they tried to sign up — a similar problem encountered with the individual “hardship exemption.”
“It’s a wink and a nod — it means nothing,” Bachmann said. “This is all outcome-based legislating from the administration. And let’s face it, this has one thing in mind. It’s about President Obama trying to keep the Senate in Democrat hands in 2014. That’s it.”
And the Minnesota lawmaker speculated that the White House is unlikely to close the open enrollment period until it gets numbers it can use politically — and that may take a while.
“If you look at what they’re trying to do — you check the box here, on an honor system — I would say this is to infinity and beyond,” she declared. “What they’re essentially planning is that people can continually enroll whenever they wanna enroll. Because they want to get to their numbers.
“And let’s face it,” she added. “This is an admission of failure. This is not working, the sign-up for Obamacare. And it’s a program that will never pay for itself.”
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