Morning Briefing

President Barack Obama defended the problem-plagued rollout of the health law's insurance exchanges late last week. In an interview with The Associated Press, he asked Americans to not give up on changes the law is making and to give it time to work. Later, Obama said he didn't know how many people had signed up for coverage through the exchanges and reiterated his unwillingness to repeal parts of the law to get Republicans to help reopen the federal government.