House Speaker John Boehner said his chamber will hold back-to-back votes next week to delay two key pieces of Obamacare — the individual and employer mandates.
“The president delayed Obamacare’s employer mandate, but he hasn’t delayed the mandate on individuals and families,” Boehner said Thursday. “This is unfair, and it is indefensible.”
The individual mandate requires most people to get health coverage. The employer one — delayed by the White House until 2015 — requires businesses with more than 50 workers to cover them.
Republicans hope to put Democrats in a tough spot by forcing them to vote on delaying the employer mandate — and then making them vote on delaying the individual mandate, too, something Democrats are sure to oppose.
Charging that “even the administration admits the health law is unworkable,” Boehner juxtaposed the different pressures that businesses versus individual Americans will face if only one of the mandates is delayed. Republicans are also questioning whether the Treasury had the legal authority to say it wasn’t going to enforce a portion of the health law for a year.
“If you’re a software company making billions in profits, you’re exempt from Obamacare next year,” he said. “But if you’re a 28-year-old struggling to pay off your student loans, you’re not.”
