With Political Pressures Increasing In Response To Health Law Roll-Out And Policy Cancellations, The White House Spin Machine Moves Into Overdrive
News outlets report on the pressure coming from both Democrats and Republicans regarding what some are calling President Barack Obama's "broken promise."
The New York Times: Obama In Bind Trying To Keep Health Law Vow
Under intense bipartisan pressure to answer mounting consumer complaints about the botched health care rollout, White House officials are struggling to make good on President Obama’s promise that Americans can keep their insurance coverage without undermining the new health law or adding unaffordable costs (Shear and Pear, 11/12).
Politico: White House Fires Up Its Obamacare Spin Machine
But after the website debacle, the bad press of people losing their health plans and President Barack Obama’s defense and then walk-back of his “if you like your plan, you can keep it” slogan, the White House has a tougher job on its hands. There’s essentially no avoiding a bad news cycle, but there are ways to mitigate the damage (Epstein, 11/13).
NPR: With Pressure From All Sides, Obamacare Vise Tightens On Dems
Democrats at the White House and in Congress find themselves in an ever-tightening vise over all those canceled health insurance policies. House Republicans plan a vote as soon as Friday on a bill that would allow people to keep health plans they like, just as President Obama said they'd be able to (until it became clear they couldn't) under the Affordable Care Act (James, 11/12).
The New York Times’ Political Memo: Fighting To Stop An Entitlement Before It Takes Hold, And Expands
Underlying fierce Republican efforts to stop President Obama’s health care law and the White House drive to save it is a simple historical reality: Once major entitlement programs get underway, they quickly become embedded in American life. And then they grow (Harwood, 11/12).
