[Jeanne Shaheen, ]The [Democrat] New Hampshire senator fundamentally altered the health-care fight on Tuesday with a letter to the White House demanding it both extend the ObamaCare enrollment deadline and waive tax penalties for those unable to enroll. Within nanoseconds, Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor had endorsed her "common-sense idea." By Wednesday night, five Senate Democrats were on board.
In the Senate, West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin is working on legislation to delay the individual mandate's enforcement for a year. CNN reports that all 16 Senate Democrats up for re-election are expected to support Ms. Shaheen's proposal. In the House, Democratic members are stacking up behind all of these ideas.
Even House liberals have felt it necessary to reassure voters that they, too, are angry—though so far they are merely calling for scalps. "I'd like to see somebody lose their job over this. I think it's outrageous," complained New York Rep. Sean Maloney. "Somebody's got to man up here—get rid of these people," said Minnesota's Rick Nolan.
a numerically significant number of Senate Democrats have, on their own, signaled that it is acceptable for members of the president's party to demand consequential ObamaCare changes.
The pressure for other Democrats to join will rise, as will the pressure for the party to embrace more extensive changes to the law. Even before the ObamaCare rollout, Mr. Pryor and North Carolina's Kay Hagan had co-sponsored legislation to kill ObamaCare's rationing board (the House version has 23 Democratic co-sponsors). Alaska Sen. Mark Begich had introduced a bill to delay the business mandate for two years. There is bipartisan opposition to the medical-device tax, to the ObamaCare slush fund and to the IRS's central role in coordinating the law.