Wall Street Journal: ‘Sorry We’re So Soft On Obamacare’
The Wall Street Journal has apologized to the American public for being too soft on President Obama’s signature healthcare reform package, popularly nicknamed “Obamacare.” The apology might be a welcome one to critics of the legislation, except that the Wall Street Journal has been one of Obamacare’s most strident opponents in media all along.
“These columns fought the Affordable Care Act from start to passage, and we’d now like to apologize to our readers. It turns out we weren’t nearly critical enough,” read an editorial posted on their website.
“The law’s implementation is turning into a fiasco for the ages, and this week’s version is the lawless White House decision to delay the law’s insurance mandate for businesses, though not for individuals.”
The controversial decision to delay the business mandate for another year has been cited by conservative critics of Obamacare as an example of the carelessness with which the complex law is being implemented and a failure of bureaucracy.
Calls for Obamacare’s repeal have been renewed, as Obama administration officials struggle to do damage control. Spokeswoman Valerie Jarrett insisted that Obamacare’s implementation is still on track, while a Treasury Department spokesperson suggested that officials underestimated how complex implementation of the law would be.
The Wall Street Journal isn’t buying it.
“This is more than a typical government snafu. It relates directly to the design of the law, which was thoughtlessly written and rammed through Congress with instructions for the bureaucracy to figure it all out,” the editorial said.
The right-leaning publication has published dozens of op-eds critical of Obamacare since before it was passed. The implication here is that as more bad news about the legislation comes out, WSJ will ramp up their attacks on the controversial healthcare package.
