Senator Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat from West Virginia, offers a dire prediction for the fate of Obamacare:

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said Sunday that Obamacare could be headed for a “complete meltdown” if costs rise too fast and people are unhappy with their coverage.

“If it’s so much more expensive than what we anticipated, and if the coverage is not as good as what we’ve had, you’ve got a complete meltdown at that time,” Manchin said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

The senator said such a situation would result in the law collapsing under “its own weight.”

Manchin is still proposing a one-year delay, which as Randy Barnett and I have argued elsewhere, would have to acknowledge that the mandate is in fact a tax.

Update: CNN excerpts more quotations from the interview:

“(Obamacare) falls of its own weight if basically the cost becomes more than we can absorb,” Manchin said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” …

“This whole 2014 will be a transitional year to find out where our glitches are, and our little nuances that we have to work for, and find out if the market can produce the products that we need to keep this us healthy.”

Manchin continued: “This transitional year gives you a chance to adjust the products to the market and to see if the market will absorb and buy the product.”