Obama says health care law is working

Seeking to regroup from his health care law's disastrous rollout, US President Barack Obama has insisted that the sweeping overhaul is working and warned Republican critics that he would fight any efforts to strip away its protections.

'We're not repealing it as long as I'm president,' Obama said during a health care event on Tuesday at the White House.

'If I have to fight another three years to make sure this law works, then that's what I'll do.'

Earlier on Tuesday, the administration released a 50-state report saying that nearly 1.5 million people were found eligible for Medicaid during October.

As website problems depressed sign-ups for subsidised private coverage, that safety-net program for low-income people saw a nearly 16 per cent increase in states that have agreed to expand it, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

The White House is trying to cast the health care law in a positive light after the first two months of enrolment for the centrepiece insurance exchanges were marred with technical problems.

With the majority of problems with the sign-up website resolved, by the accounting of administration officials, Obama and his team plan to spend much of December trying to remind Americans why the administration fought for the law in the first place.

'We believe that in America, nobody should have to worry about going broke because somebody in their family or they got sick,' Obama said, flanked by people the White House says have benefited from the law.

Despite Obama's sunny presentation, officials are furiously working behind the scenes to rectify an unresolved issue with enrolment data that could become a significant headache after the first of the year.

Insurers say much of the enrolment data they're receiving is practically useless, meaning some consumers might not be able to get access to benefits on January 1, the date their coverage is scheduled to take effect.

source: skynews.com.au

Top Senate Dems urge Obama to take unilateral action on debt ceiling

WASHINGTON –  If President Obama were to break the impasse with Republicans over raising the debt limit by taking unilateral action, such a move would have the potential to set off a firestorm of controversy and spark a protracted legal battle.

Top Senate Democrats say, go for it.

The White House has dismissed talk that Obama would rely on unusual measures to raise the nation's debt limit without Congress' approval, but administration officials also have warned that the country could default on its debt and trigger a new economic crisis if lawmakers don't increase the limit on borrowing.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is among those urging Obama to consider options like invoking the 14th Amendment to the Constitution to find ways around the $16.4 trillion legal cap on government borrowing. The amendment states that the "validity of the public debt of the United States ... shall not be questioned," which some lawmakers believe permits a way out of the debt limit jam.

The government hit the debt limit last month and is juggling the books to buy additional time for Congress to act. But those moves only buy a few weeks of wiggle room, which requires Congress to act -- likely by mid- to late-February -- to avoid a market-quaking default on U.S. obligations.

The White House has said emphatically that it does not believe that the 14th Amendment permits Obama to ignore the debt cap on U.S. borrowing, though it considered the question during the 2011 debt crisis.

"There is no Plan B. There is no backup plan," White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday. "There is no alternative to Congress raising the debt ceiling."

A letter to Obama on Friday from Reid and Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., doesn't mention the 14th Amendment, but aides to the senators said that's what they have in mind in urging the president to consider unilateral action.

"We believe you must be willing to take any lawful steps to ensure that America does not break its promises and trigger a global economic crisis -- without congressional approval, if necessary," the letter said.

Battling House and Senate leaders have made virtually no progress on a strategy for legislation to lift the debt cap. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, insists that any debt increase be matched by equivalent spending cuts. Obama, buoyed by his re-election victory, says he won't negotiate as he did in 2011, when he traded a $2.1 trillion debt increase for tight spending limits on agency budgets and automatic, across-the-board spending cuts if a congressional "supercommittee" failed to reach a budget agreement.

"Senate Democrats cannot ignore their responsibilities for political convenience -- and the American people will not tolerate an increase in the debt limit without spending cuts and reforms," said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel.

The impasse has people on both sides scratching their heads over how it will be resolved. The anxiety is such that some on the left are urging Obama to mint a coin worth perhaps $1 trillion to be deposited at the Federal Reserve and drawn upon to meet government obligations.

source: foxnews.com

White House Pushes Refinancing Expansion Before Election

(Bloomberg) — The White House is urging the U.S. Senate to vote as soon as this week on an expansion of a government mortgage refinancing program, a move that could showcase President Barack Obama’s support for policies aiding homeowners before the Nov. 6 presidential election.

Democratic leaders are considering adding the measure expanding the Home Affordable Refinancing Program to their agenda for the two-week Senate session that begins today, Senate aides said.

Win or lose, a vote on the bill could help the president. If enough Republicans sign on, the vote could show momentum for his efforts to help the 11.3 million borrowers who owe more than their homes are worth. If Republicans vote against the measure, Democrats can paint them as unsympathetic to homeowners, said Jaret Seiberg, senior policy analyst at Guggenheim Securities’ Washington Research Group.

“This is an effort by the president and his administration to say we’re trying to help people refinance and blame blocking action on Republicans,” Seiberg said in an interview.

The pressure for an immediate vote is coming from the Obama administration, according to Senator Robert Corker of Tennessee, a Republican on the Banking Committee. The White House press office did not respond to e-mails requesting comment.

“My guess is they may get the votes. If they get the votes, they want to do it in a way that tries to show a divide,” Corker said.

The Senate session may last as few as six days. Even if senators manage to pass it in that time frame, the bill has little chance of becoming law since Republicans who control the House have no plans for a companion measure.

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source: thenichereport.com