Eyeing Midterm elections, President postpones ObamaCare employer mandate until 2016

Facing the prospect that Democratic lawmakers would lose seats in the 2014 midterm elections if businesses were to lay off workers in anticipation of the Obamacare employer mandate, which was set to go into effect in 2015, the Obama administration announced Monday that it is delaying the implementation of the employer mandate for medium-sized businesses until 2016.

This is the second time the Obama administration has delayed the mandate. Last summer the White House announced a one-year reprieve in the mandate pushing it back from 2014 to 2015. But apparently the President, and Democrats in congress who are up for reelection in 2014, concluded that this delay would not deter businesses from laying off employees in 2014 in preparation for the 2015 deadline. Hence, the President circumvented the provisions of the health care law once again and postponed the mandate until 2016 for companies with 50 to 99 employees - thereby removing a potential stumbling block for the midterm elections.