Cantor: ‘Best delay for ObamaCare is a permanent one’

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Tuesday that the “best delay for ObamaCare is a permanent one,” shortly after news broke that the Obama administration was delaying a key provision of the Affordable Care Act.

“This further confirms that even the proponents of ObamaCare know it will hurt jobs, decrease economic growth and make it harder for families to have access to quality and affordable health care,” Cantor said. “Rather than continuing to delay the predictable pain until another election day has passed, we should scrap this entire law and instead implement patient-centered reforms before any more damage is done to our economy or the health care families depend on.”

Congressional Republicans were crowing Tuesday over the decision to delay a mandate requiring businesses to provide their workers with health insurance, or else face a fine. The White House said that by delaying the requirement until 2015, it would give more businesses time to figure out the complex reporting requirements mandated by the law.

{mosads}But Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said in a statement that the move was a “clear acknowledgment that the law is unworkable, and it underscores the need to repeal the law and replace it with effective, patient-centered reforms.”

“The president’s health care law is already raising costs and costing jobs. This announcement means even the Obama administration knows the ‘train wreck’ will only get worse,” Boehner said.

Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Boehner, called the move “a swift punch in the gut for Obamacare advocates.”

“Obamacare. Such a train wreck,” he said on Twitter.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said that “the White House seems to slowly be admitting what Americans already know,” according to a tweet by his spokesman, Don Stewart.

Stewart, riffing off Cantor, went on to ask for a “permanent delay for the rest of us.”

“The Obama administration’s delaying the employer mandate because it’s too complex for businesses to comply with,” Stewart said. “What about the Average Joe?”

White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said in a blog post Tuesday night the administration was “working hard to adapt and to be flexible in employer and insurer reporting as we implement the law.”

“This allows employers the time to test the new reporting systems and make any necessary adaptations to their health benefits while staying the course toward making health coverage more affordable and accessible for their workers,” Jarrett wrote.

She also said efforts were “full steam ahead” for the opening of healthcare marketplaces in October.

—This post was updated at 7:05 p.m.