Posted on 12/03/2013 1:00:22 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
President Obama declared Tuesday that ObamaCare "is working" and that "we're not going back," as the White House looked to reboot its efforts to sell Americans on the president's signature healthcare law.
Obama said that "poor execution" of the rollout of HealthCare.gov had "clouded" the benefits of the bill, but said he would not allow technical glitches to undermine a program that was providing financial security for many Americans.
"If I've got to fight another three years to make sure this law works, that's what we'll do," Obama said.
"We're not repealing it as long as I'm president," he added. "I want everybody to be clear about that. We'll make it work."
The president, flanked by supporters who had benefited from aspects of the law, vacillated between a defense of his embattled program and a sales pitch intended to highlight some of ObamaCare's benefits for ordinary families.
Obama shared stories of individuals who had been helped by provisions of the law that allowed those under 26 to remain on their parents' health insurance, or receive free preventive care.
Acknowledging that the benefits of the program had "gotten lost a little bit," the president urged attendees to tell their friends and families about the law's success stories.
"It's working better now and it's just going to keep on working better over time," Obama said.
In his remarks, the president shied away from directly addressing more recent critiques of the ObamaCare website, including reports that the portal was continuing to provide insurers with error-riddled enrollment information. Obama did say that as new problems arose, the administration would address them.
"Whatever comes up, we're going to fix it," he said, adding later that the White House had " learned not to make wild promises about how perfectly smooth it's going to be."
The president also chastised critics of the law, saying Republicans "haven't presented an alternative" that would address flaws of the pre-ObamaCare system. He singled out Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), saying the Republican leader "refused to answer" when asked what his alternate proposal was.
"He just repeated 'repeal' over and over and over again," Obama said.
Earlier Tuesday, McConnell said the president's "campaign-style event won’t solve the myriad problems facing consumers under ObamaCare."
“The American people have been learning about the impact ObamaCare will have on individuals and families in the form of higher premiums, disrupted insurance, and lost jobs—more broken promises from the administration. And they’re becoming increasingly aware of the fact ObamaCare is broken beyond repair," McConnell said.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said Tuesday that the president's event was the first of many in a "renewed effort to refocus the public and the public's attention on the benefits of the law."
Carney said that in the coming days, the president and other White House officials would talk about existing benefits under ObamaCare, including insurance plans mandating free preventive care, ending discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, and the curbed growth in healthcare costs.
The White House spokesman said that sales effort would use "a number of different venues," including press events and Internet advertising campaigns.
"This is an opportunity now that the website is functioning effectively for the vast majority of users and we are seeing high volume and high volume being handled effectively by the website and people enrolling that it's an opportune time to talk about, again, the actual benefits that are provided by the law," Carney said.
Now there's a pregnant phrase.....
Joe is too busy dissing women in the workplace and negotiating peace with China....
we are doomed.
We’re not going back...
to Constitutionality...
to respecting Christians...
to respecting strong reasoned opposition...
to respecting people who work hard for a living...
to protecting the United States from it’s enemies...
to the things that made this nation second to none...
Barack Obama to the world: “It’s over. We’re not going back!”
He sure doesn’t give a rat’s ass about what we think, how much havoc he causes, or tearing the Constitution to shreds, does he?
What’s the difference between him and a dictator?
still French to me and those signing up.
I have employee only coverage where I work. Just got the dreaded memo today that I will have to pay for part of the premium starting Jan 1, 2014.
Spouse and children coverage will no longer be available at all on Jan 1, 2014 through my employer.
Waiting on the memo that states my hours are being cut to 29 hours/week.
FUBO
“He just doesn’t know what’s coming.”
Yes, he does. He just doesn’t care. It won’t affect him or his family or his playmate from hell, so why should he care? Not to mention it fits perfectly with inflicting us shariah to force dhimmitude on the American population. Jizya, anyone?
nope ,,,, we’ll make Ronald Reagan Proud.
Just South of the Mason Dixon Line ...
Well you need to get off the bus right now because the rest of us ARE going back. We are NOT going where you are trying to take us . . . "period". If you want your Commie dictatorship, you can have it, but you just can't have it here.
Getting close to the time for the "let's roll" command.
See Battle of Stalingrad. Hitler’s orders were NO SURRENDER.
Spoken like a tyrant.
“We’re going to finance the healthcare of the entire country using the income of the middle class.”
I don’t see how it can be repealed anymore. Too much has changed.
One thing the Republicans can do is offer a law allowing insurance to offer lower cost catastrophic policies again that do not contain all the new mandatory coverages.
At least that will be an option for regular working Americans next fall when everyone else’s coverage is destroyed by the employer mandate.
Repeal this act?
Impeach this SOB!
No, but it does take a 2/3 majority in both houses to over-ride.
We’re already at the point where it is recognized that the current government lacks legitimacy, and people are acting accordingly by avoiding and thwarting the “laws” passed by the illegitimate authority.
‘We’re not going back’
I guess he and his family of grifters is not going back to Kenya....bad news for US.
“We’ll make it work.”
I believe LBJ, upon passing Medicare and Medicaid, pushed for health insurance companies to start dropping people because they weren’t racing to sign up for them.
Ten bucks says we’re going to see a repeat soon.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.