Despot-in-Chief Back to His Lawless Ways Yet Again

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Cue up the cries of tyranny, folks. The despot-in-chief is at his lawless ways yet again:

The Obama administration said it would allow people to sign up for plans on HealthCare.gov through April to avoid tax penalties for going uncovered in 2015. The extension, which adds more than two months to the enrollment period for health coverage this year, was announced by Health and Human Services officials on Friday.

….People who pay penalties for going uncovered in 2014 and are still uninsured will be allowed to visit HealthCare.gov until the end of April….They will be able to apply for coverage starting March 15 as long as they attest that they didn’t learn about the health law’s requirement to carry insurance or pay the fine when they filed their taxes.

This is basically a recognition of the real-world reality that a lot of people are going to be pissed off when they realize they have to pay a tax penalty for lacking health insurance. So HHS is giving them a choice: once you find out about the penalty, you can either pay it or sign up for health coverage.

Does this make sense? Is HHS within its rights to do this? Will it help lots of people who are genuinely confused about the law? Is it just a bit of ass-covering from the Obama administration, which knows it will otherwise face a big backlash from folks who have to pay a penalty?

It doesn’t really matter. It’s lawlessness. It’s tyranny. It’s Obama shredding the Constitution yet again. It’s the end of the America we love. The soundtrack for this movie is a beloved conservative classic, and it’s coming to a TV screen near you in 3, 2, 1….

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

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