Point (July 2013):

President Obama on Tuesday threatened to veto a pair of Republican bills in the House which would delay the employer and individual mandates for one year in the Obama health reform laws, as GOP leaders pressed Democrats to break ranks with the White House on the issue.

Another Point (March, 2014):

The White House said Tuesday that President Obama would veto a House GOP bill to delay a contentious part of Obamacare for one year.

The House is set to vote this week on the Simple Fairness Act, which let Americans go without health insurance in 2014 without facing the tax penalty prescribed by the Affordable Care Act.

Counter-point (August 2014)

Almost 90% of the nation’s 30 million uninsured won’t pay a penalty under the Affordable Care Act in 2016 because of a growing batch of exemptions to the health-coverage requirement.

The architects of the health law wanted most Americans to carry insurance or pay a penalty. But an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation said most of the uninsured will qualify for one or more exemptions.

You see, it’s not that the Obama administration even wants to have an individual mandate, at this point. Obviously, they don’t, because it’d be an electoral disaster to force 10% of the population to pay a tax that they’ve clearly decided not to pay*. What this is about is simply the flailing of a group of people who are miserably incapable of living up to their hype, who know that they are miserably incapable, but who cannot bring themselves to publicly admit their failure as policy makers and politicians.  This would almost be funny… except that I have to live with the policies that these people are currently mismanaging.

Ach, well, don’t look at me.  I voted for the functional adults.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: As that WSJ article kind of notes… if the Supreme Court rules in Halbig that people on the federal exchange don’t qualify for subsidies then the individual mandate will effectively die: not getting a subsidy will count as a hardship exemption, given how exorbitant an Obamacare policy will likely be without them.  Thus it’s entirely possible that the Obama administration will end up wanting to take a dive on this case.  While whining all the way about Republicans on their way to the floor, no doubt.

*Forcing 1% is a bit more feasible, and don’t ask me why that is.