Barack "The Nose" Obama Discusses Obamacare, the Shutdown and the Debt Ceiling

President Obama gave an exclusive interview to Associated Press this weekend. Below are some of the highlights as the President spoke about the shaky start of enrollment under the health care overhaul, the government shutdown, the threat of a US debt payment default, and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. President Hassan Rouhani and other topics. Here's what President Obama had to say on three domestic topics. (1). HEALTH CARE OVERHAUL: Obama said the level of public interest exceeded expectations and overwhelmed the system. He said people are working around the clock to make things run smoother. Obama said people shouldn't give up on signing up since coverage doesn't kick in until January and the enrollment period ends in March. He said he did not have data on how many people had successfully signed up to buy insurance from private companies, mostly through websites that went live this past Tuesday. ~~~~~ Casey-pops Fact Check >>> A lot of state data has been released. In Connecticut, 167 people had signed up out of 24,000 hits as of Thursday night. In Kentucky, 1250 out of 28,000. Cover California, the official state site, originally said there were 5 million hits, but later pared that down to 650,000 and did not give signup figures. But major insurers and the federal government are more interested in who signs up because the increase in coverage cost for men under 30 will be 97-99%, and for young women, 55-62% - not a great incentive to choose Obamacare. Young people are being asked to foot the bill for older, poorer, sicker people. Rumors are that the feds know how many have signed up but won't release the figure because it's very low. As for the website glitches, they are mainly due to poor programming of initial access windows, not over-use, according to IT experts. (2). FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN. Obama said the government could reopen quickly because there are enough Republican and Democratic votes in the House to pass a bill to do that, but he again blamed House Speaker John Boehner for not allowing a vote in an attempt to extract additional concessions from the administration. House Republicans want to delay the health care law in exchange for reopening the government, but Obama says ending the shutdown is not a matter he will negotiate. ~~~~~ Casey-pops Fact Check >>> This one is E A S Y. How can a President who publicly says he refuses to negotiate with Boehner, or anyone else, about the budget crisis - and who has NEVER in 5 years submitted a budget to the House, as required - blame anyone for refusing to resolve the budget crisis or delaying the re-opening of the federal government. (3). DEBT CEILING. Obama said the US has never failed to pay its bills and that he won't negotiate with House Republicans over the debt ceiling. Obama said no party had ever threatened to not pay America's bills until 2011, when Boehner and House Republicans did so thinking it might give them more leverage in negotiations. He said the US can't allow a faction of one party in one chamber in one branch of government threatens economic collapse unless it gets to have its way. ~~~~~ Casey-pops Fact Check >>> With thanks to the Wall Street Journal : "Congress has raised the debt ceiling 53 times and of those 53 times, less than half had no conditional legislation involved. In most of these cases, Democrats controlled Congress. On some of these occasions Democrats used the debt ceiling debate specifically as a crowbar for legislation against Republicans....In 1979, a Democratic Congress lncreased the debt limit but required Congress and the president to present balanced budgets for fiscal years 1981 and 1982. In 1980 the debt limit, again increased by a Democratic Congress, included repeal of an oil-import fee. In 1985, the debt limit that was raised by a divided Congress included a cigarette tax and a provision requiring Congress to pursue an alternative minimum corporate tax in the next year." The WSJ points out that what is different this time is that the President refuses to negotiate...this is a first - the first time that this has EVER happened. And lest we forget, when he was a Senator, Barack Obama himself voted against raising the debt ceiling for a Republican President. ~~~~~ So, dear readers, if we score President Obama's recent statements about domestic American issues, he gets a 0 for 3. Mr. President, do you feel your nose growing?