Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) voted today on two pieces of legislation to ensure every American is given a reprieve from Obamacare's onerous mandates. Foxx offered the following statement on the votes:
"Obamacare is a bad law, but it is a bad law President Obama asked for. And it's a bad law he, as mastermind and chief enforcer, must obey -- unless Congress authorizes a change.
"Today House Republicans voted to give the President the authority to delay the implementation of Obamacare's employer mandate -- something his Administration wants to do. But House Republicans went a step further. If businesses are getting a break from the President's law, individual Americans should too.
"In a second vote today, we voted to extend to families the same reprieve by delaying the implementation of Obamacare's individual mandate tax as well.
"House Republicans see Obamacare for the broken law it is. We don't want any Americans to suffer under its weight."
The Authority for Mandate Delay Act (H.R. 2667) delays Obamacare's employer mandate. The Fairness for American Families Act (H.R. 2668) provides relief to every American citizen by delaying Obamacare's strikingly unpopular individual mandate.
President Obama announced earlier this month that his Administration would unilaterally delay the implementation of Obamacare's employer mandate for one year. The President must enforce and abide by laws as they are written. But it is curious that the Administration would seek only to extend reprieve to businesses and not to individual Americans.
Foxx and GOP leaders sent a letter to President Barack Obama last week asking him to explain his rationale for exempting just businesses, and not families, from Obamacare's mandates during the first year the legislation takes effect. The letter additionally asks the White House to announce now which other provisions of Obamacare it expects to delay.
Foxx twice spoke on the floor of the House of Representatives in support of extending the delay of Obamacare's mandates to individual Americans and not just businesses as the White House has planned.