Harkin: ObamaCare not seriously wounded by delay in employer mandate

He may be ignorant, “but not willfully so,” Sen. Tom Harkin joked this morning when questioned about his criticism of a White House decision to delay implementation of a part of ObamaCare.

The president's press secretary, Jay Carney, said earlier this week that Harkin, the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee, and others questioning the one-year delay in implementing the employer mandate “are deliberately sticking their heads in the sand, or just willfully ignorant about past precedent.”

It is serious, Harkin told reporters, but he downplayed his disagreement with the Obama administration as “sort of the historic clash between the legislative branch and the executive branch” over how laws passed by Congress are implemented by the executive branch.

“It's not first time in my 39 years that I've had that kind of a disagreement” with both Democratic and Republicans administrations, Harkin said. He attributed the disagreement to “the murkiness of the water between any legislative branch and the executive branch.”

Although he disagrees with the Obama administration on the delay, Harkin said it “does not in any way mess up what is the single-most important part of the Affordable Care Act” -- state insurance exchanges.

“The most important thing is the individual mandate and getting the exchanges up and running,” he said. The exchanges will offer an opportunity to about 30 million Americans without health insurance, people with pre-existing conditions and others who have been denied health care insurance the ability to get affordable coverage beginning later this year.

“That's the big prize right there,” Harkin said. “That's a lot more important in my view than the employer mandate.”