Bad to Worse: Obamacare Website Slammed by Critics

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Photo Credit: Getty ImagesBy Dan Mangan.

The federal Obamacare insurance marketplace is being pummeled by a damning series of new disclosures, expert criticism, Republican demands that the Health and Human Services chief resign and presidential displeasure as the tech-troubled website stumbles into its third week of operation.

And even as officials repeatedly claim there is plenty of time to fix the problems at HealthCare.gov, speculation has risen that the Obama administration could fall well short of its goal of enrolling 7 million people in new insurance plans by 2014 because of a crippling set of technical potholes the venture has encountered.

President Barack Obama is “not happy” with the problems, his spokesman Jay Carney said Thursday. Carney also said the president wants “accountability” from the federal workers overseeing the rollout of his signature health-reform law.

Obama also said HealthCare.gov, which is offering insurance plans to residents of 36 states, has “way more glitches than I think are acceptable.”

The federal and individual state health exchanges are a key part of Obamacare, offering what is supposed to be a menu of affordable insurance options to uninsured or underinsured people so that they can comply with a law that takes effect in 2014 requiring nearly all Americans to have health insurance or pay a tax penalty.

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Photo Credit: ReutersObamacare wins? See you in 2014

By David Nather.

Obamacare wins!

Now, let’s talk about that website.

President Barack Obama’s signature health care law is now turning into a 2014 election issue, rather than the disastrous defunding fight that led the government to close for three weeks. With the shutdown out of the way, the health care law’s problems will take center stage in a way that they didn’t while Republicans were stepping on their own message.

Obamacare was always going to be a major issue in the mid-term elections, since so many of its major pieces — the new health coverage, the online marketplaces where the coverage is available, the expansion of Medicaid, and the hated individual mandate — become real in January.

But now, Democrats will also have to talk about a federal health insurance website that barely anyone can use. Even White House spokesman Jay Carney was reduced to arguing Thursday that Obamacare isn’t just a website — after Obama has been saying it would be as easy as shopping for flat-screen TVs online.

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Cory Booker ‘Excited’ to Officiate Gay Marriages

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Photo Credit: APNew Jersey Sen.-elect Cory Booker will officiate some of the first gay marriages in New Jersey early Monday morning, his office in Newark announced Friday.

“Mayor Booker has refused all requests to officiate New Jersey marriages because gay couples have been denied that equal right. After today’s wonderful news, Mayor Booker is excited to marry both straight and gay couples in City Hall on Monday morning beginning at 12:01 a.m.,” said Booker spokesperson James Allen in a written statement out Friday.

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Mexican Consulate Plans Saturday, Oct. 19, Asheville Visit to Aid Immigrants

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Photo Credit: mountainxMore than 24,000 Mexicans live in Western North Carolina, according to the Consulate General of Mexico’s Raleigh, N.C., office. Nearly 9,000 of them live in Buncombe County, and about 8,500 in Henderson County. For the past three years, the Consulate has brought its office to Asheville so that these legal immigrants can get help with a variety of needs.

“Without the proper identification, people who have immigrated to this country from Mexico cannot even get a library card, let alone utilities or a bank account,” says Carolina McCready, co-director of the nonprofit El Centro of Henderson County. To overcome such barriers and help meet vital identification needs in the local Mexican community, El Centro is hosting a visit from the Mexican Consulate on Saturday, Oct. 19, from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. at the WNC AG Center in the Expo Building.

Usually, in order to process the paperwork needed to obtain/renew passports, Mexican ID cards or power of attorney, WNC immigrants have to go to the Mexican Consulate’s office in Raleigh, which requires taking time off of work and taking children away from school. In addition to eight hours of driving, most visits require many hours at the Consulate office and an overnight stay. These logistics present an insurmountable challenge for many Mexicans living in this area, say organizers of the October event.

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Fla. Republican Rep. C.W. ‘Bill’ Young Dies at 82

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Photo Credit: APRep. C. W. “Bill” Young, a Florida Republican who was the longest-tenured Republican in the House and served as the longtime top appropriator for the defense industry, died Friday at 82.

Hospitalized at Walter Reed for a back injury, Young received a call earlier this week from former President George W. Bush thanking him for backing the military.

Young announced in recent weeks he was retiring from Congress.

He did not vote Wednesday night on the bill to raise the debt limit and fund the government.

First elected in 1970, Young became the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee’s panel on defense in 1995, serving until his death.

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In 23 Advanced Economies: U.S. Adults Rank 21st in Math Skills

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Photo Credit: APThe U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) on Friday released the initial results of an international survey of adult skills in literacy and mathematics, revealing that Americans rank 21st in “numeracy” and are tied for 15th in literacy among adults in 23 advanced economies.

American adults also scored below the average in both numeracy and literacy for all respondents in all 23 advanced economies.

Japan and Finland ranked first and second in both categories and Italy and Spain took the bottom two spots in both.

The international survey–the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC)–was developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The data from Russia was not included in the initial results, the NCES said, “because they were released too late for publication.”

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Obama to Republicans: ‘Go Win an Election’

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Photo Credit: APBy Dan Weil.

In an apparent attempt to rub Republicans’ noses in their defeat on the debt ceiling conflict, President Barack Obama said Thursday that they should “win an election” if they want to change his policies.

“To all my friends in Congress, understand that how business is done in this town has to change,” Obama said in a statement to reporters at the White House.

“You don’t like a particular policy or a particular president? Then argue for your position. Go out there and win an election. But don’t break it.”

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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‘Win an election’ is Obama’s new catchphrase

By CNBC.

“Go out there and win an election” may be the one thing everyone remembers about the government shutdown of 2013.

That was President Barack Obama’s mantra on Thursday, hours after Congress passed a deal to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling.

Obama, widely seen as having won the fight with House Republicans, used an address to condemn Congress for the budget fight and to try and set priorities for the next year.

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The U.S. Default Risk May be Passing, but a Downgrade Could Still Lie Ahead

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Photo Credit: Justin Lane/EPAIf the U.S. government’s credit rating is the backbone of the public financial system, then the negative credit watch issued by Fitch Ratings on Tuesday is akin to a bulging disc.

It may never cause a problem. But if it ruptures, the results could be painful. For the next few months, as the government approaches another debt limit and Fitch evaluates how the political system responds, the threat of a downgrade remains — and with it the risk of a broad rise in borrowing costs, not just for the federal government but also for countless state, city and local agencies whose credit ratings could be at risk as well.

The Fitch action highlights the central — and controversial — role played by the three large credit ratings agencies in the U.S. and global financial systems. The grades that Fitch, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s use to rate the creditworthiness of institutions, governments and financial securities partly determine how much nations pay to raise money, how much a local sewer authority must charge its customers for debt service and whether a company can get the money it needs to build a factory.

The process is complex — combining hard data analysis, dense statistics and assessments of national politics and governance — and it sometimes has blunt results. The differences among the top ratings are not great, but a downgrade that pushes a country or company across the line from “investment grade” to “speculative” — a junk bond — can be catastrophic.

The ratings companies were criticized for the high grades given to the complex securities that helped spark the U.S. financial crisis. They were slammed in Europe as being too slow to downgrade Greece — the country kept investment-grade status through years of financial shenanigans — and too quick and vicious once they decided officials in Athens had lost credibility.

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They’re Not Going To Take It Anymore: New Generation Of Immigrant Advocates Take Radical Approach

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Photo Credit: REUTERSThe frustration, say immigration advocates, is reaching a fever pitch.

That is why, many say, recent weeks have seen activists use chains and pipes to tie themselves to the tires of buses that carry immigrants slated for deportation to court, block traffic on Capitol Hill and get arrested, surround Tucson police when they targeted two immigrants during a traffic stop, and chain themselves and block the entrance of a federal detention center.

More such actions, they vow, are coming.

“It’s absolutely out of frustration and impatience,” said Marisa Franco, campaign organizer for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, which helped coordinate some of the more provocative actions. “Immigrant communities who are losing 1,100 loved ones every day to deportation cannot wait for Congress to end its political games or for the President to rediscover his moral compass,” she added.

“The people will take power back into their own hands and set a true example of leadership that the Beltway will have to follow,” Franco vowed.

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U.S. Senator Cruz Blocks Confirmation of New FCC Chairman

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Photo Credit: REUTERS/Jonathan ErnstRepublican Senator Ted Cruz, a conservative whose defiant stand against Obamacare helped prompt the U.S. government shutdown, has blocked the Senate from voting on the nomination of Tom Wheeler to be Federal Communications Commission chairman.

The Senate was scheduled to vote on Wheeler, a Democrat and telecom industry veteran, late on Wednesday. Cruz held up the vote over questions about the FCC’s power to enforce disclosures of who sponsors political television advertising.

“The Senator is holding the nominee until he gets answers to his questions regarding Mr. Wheeler’s views on whether the FCC has the authority or intent to implement the requirements of the failed Congressional DISCLOSE Act,” said Cruz spokesman Sean Rushton, referring to a failed bill meant to step up political disclosures.

“Mr. Wheeler had previously declined to give specific answers, but as he’s now expressed his readiness to revisit the Senator’s questions, the Senator hopes to communicate with him soon,” Rushton said.

If Wheeler cannot resolve Cruz’s concerns, Senate Democrats could force a vote on the nomination. Majority Leader Harry Reid would decided whether to take that action.

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McConnell: No More Shutdowns Over Obamacare

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell made it clear on Thursday that repealing Obamacare would never be used by Republicans again to bring the federal government to a halt.

“One of my favorite old Kentucky sayings is there’s no education in the second kick of a mule,” McConnell told The Hill. “The first kick of a mule was when we shut the government down in the mid-1990s — and the second kick was over the last 16 days.”

“There will not be a government shutdown,” the Kentucky Republican added.

The Obamacare strategy was pushed by several young congressional Republicans backed by the tea party — including freshman Sen. Ted Cruz, who spoke against the healthcare plan for more than 21 hours on the Senate floor last month — which led to a 16-day partial shutdown of the government and jeopardized the nation’s borrowing authority.

“I think we have fully now acquainted our new members with what a losing strategy that is,” McConnell told The Hill.

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