The Obamacare farce unravels immigration reform...and more

Here's John Fund: "Why Obamacare threatens immigration reform: In delaying the employer mandate, Obama shows his disregard for the rule of law."

Ultimately, the greatest damage from delaying the employer mandate may come in the way it solidifies House Republican doubts about the immigration bill. Representative Phil Roe (R., Tenn.), chairman of an Education and Workforce subcommittee, says that he doubts the administration can be trusted to enforce the will of Congress when it comes to border security or any other part of the immigration bill. “They have shown no respect for traditional Constitutional separation of powers, and that makes it difficult to pass laws where the fear is that they will simply ignore the parts they don’t like,” he tells me. The Obama administration has not hesitated to simply ignore the clear language of Obamacare. Why wouldn’t it disregard the immigration bill in the same way? In addition, the Gang of Eight bill is stuffed with instances of discretion – in other words, opportunities for administrative meddling. It includes 222 mentions of the word “may” and 153 uses of “waive.” That’s an awful lot of discretion to hand to an administration that is expert at interpreting laws creatively to suit whatever political advantage it desires.

So after cramming Obamacare through Congress with no Republican support, Obama had two choices: repair the legislation with the bipartisan support he should have sought in the first place, or jeopardize his entire second term with an extra-legal interpretation that would further deepen mistrust in Congress and paralyze the remainder of his Presidency.  As usual, the Great Uniter decided to divide and villify.  All that's left is yet another speech.

By the way, it was only two months ago when White House operatives were taunting "It's the Law."  Well, it's looking like a law with provisions that can be waived by current and future Presidents so...not really much of anything.