Dem Senator Crafting Bill to Delay Obamacare Individual Mandate a Year

Lefty blog TPM reports that Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) is burnishing his “blue dog” credentials and working on a bill that would delay Obamacare’s mandate by a year.

His spokesman, Jonathan Kott, said Manchin opposes a bill proposed by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) to delay the mandate for a more indefinite period of time while problems with the insurance exchanges persist.

“He doesn’t support the Rubio bill and is working on bill to delay the penalty for a year,” Kott said.

Manchin’s state has become increasingly Republican over the past few years. Even with Obamacare’s rolling Katrina-scale disaster, his bill stands little chance of getting past the Senate’s Democratic leadership, and President Obama remains unlikely to sign such a bill. He only learns about his own policy disaster by reading the newspapers.

Manchin is the second Senate Democrat to call for a delay in Obamacare this week. New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen called for a delay Tuesday.