Marco Rubio Continues Push to Delay Obamacare Penalties

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., continued to push his bill on Tuesday night delaying penalties for Americans who decide not to carry health insurance due to the technical problems on Healthcare.Gov. Earlier in the day, Rubio announced he would file the bill next week. Appearing on the OReilly Factor on Fox News, Rubio explained his proposal.

Its pretty straightforward, Rubio said. Its unfair that on the one hand you are telling people that if they dont buy insurance next year the IRS is going to come after them with a fine. Its unfair to say that to them and then turn around and make it so difficult, or impossible, for them to buy that health insurance. So what the bill would basically say is that the Obamacare website has to be up and functioning for six consecutive months before they can begin to enforce this individual mandate on people. How can you punish people for not buying something that is impossible to buy because of the inability of this website to function because of government incompetence?

Bill OReilly asked Rubio about the heath care laws place in the whole entitlement culture.

The issue of Obamacare is about a much broader agenda to inject more government control over our lives and over our economy, Rubio replied. But Im dealing right now with a very focused issue. Let me give you an example. On this very day in Florida, it was announced that 300,000 people are going to lose their individual coverage because of Obamacare. Now those people next year, they dont have health insurance. They are going to owe the IRS money in the form of a fine. Where are they supposed to go now and buy that health insurance if the website isnt working, if Consumer Reports is telling people to avoid the website? So, what this bill does is it says basically this: until that website is certified to be functioning, you cannot enforce this on people. Its simply not fair.