OBAMACARE: Democrat Senator of West Virginia Joe Manchin Breaks Ranks to Back “GOP” Mandate Delay

Think Democrats in “RED” states are not politically scared to death of Obamacare?

US Senator Joe Manchin (WV-D) has broke ranks with his fellow Democrats and says he would support a stopgap spending plan that delays the individual mandate in President Barack Obama’s Obamacare. Manchin is from the “RED” state of West Virginia and knows just how unpopular this healthcare boondoggle truly is. But aren’t Democrats supposed to be for the “people” and against “big business”? Or at least that is what they say. So why don’t Democrats support a delay in the “individual” mandate like they were for big business?

U.S. Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia broke ranks with fellow Democrats and said he’d support a stopgap spending plan that delays the individual mandate in President Barack Obama’s health-care law.

“There’s no way I could not vote for it,” Manchin said at a Bloomberg Government breakfast today. “It’s very reasonable and sensible.”

The individual mandate is the linchpin of the law that requires Americans who lack insurance to purchase health care through government-run exchanges. Republicans, led by a group of newcomers in the House, are pushing to dismantle the health-care law and are using a ticking clock on a possible Oct. 1 government shutdown as leverage.

The Democratic-led Senate will vote in coming days on the stopgap spending plan and before sending it back to the House will remove language that defunds Obamacare. Obama and House Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, have said they won’t support using the budget to change the health law.

Manchin, 66, said he’d be willing to delay the individual mandate as part of the budget negotiations because the Obama administration in July gave businesses an extra year to provide their workers with health insurance.

So why is the Obama White House against the people getting the same breaks as they have provided big business? From CNN comes White House Press Secretary Jay Carney was dismissive Thursday of comments by Sen. Joe Manchin endorsing a one-year delay of the new health care law’s individual mandate.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney was dismissive Thursday of comments by Sen. Joe Manchin endorsing a one-year delay of the new health care law’s individual mandate.

“The fact is you have to make the system work,” Carney told reporters during the White House press briefing, arguing that one of the most popular aspects of the Affordable Care Act, the protection of those with preexisting conditions, cannot work without the individual mandate.

So are the rats really jumping ship or is this prearranged with the White House to let vulnerable Democrats off the hook in Red States?