Rubio calls for delay of Obamacare sign-up deadline
Washington (CNN) - Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, will introduce a bill next week that would push back the March 31 deadline to sign up for Obamacare because of the federal website's technical issues.
"It's not fair to punish people for not buying something that's not available," he said Tuesday on CBS' "This Morning."
[twitter-follow screen_name='politicalticker'] [twitter-follow screen_name='KilloughCNN']
If individuals have not signed up for health care insurance by the end of March, they face a penalty with the Internal Revenue Service. Rubio's bill would move the deadline to six months after the Government Accountability Office certifies that HealthCare.gov is fully functional.
"All it's calling for is a limited delay on the individual mandate until the website is fixed. I think that's a very prudent approach," Rubio said. "Quite frankly, I think that's where we're going to have to wind up anyway."
Report: Healthcare website failed test ahead of rollout
Rep. Trey Radel, R-Florida, announced the House version of the bill also on Tuesday.
"The President seems content to exempt everyone but you and your family from his signature piece of legislation. Worse yet, Healthcare.gov and its Spanish counterpart, where you can shop for health insurance, is completely unusable," he said in a news release. "This bill delays the Obamacare fine on you and your family until you can actually sign up for health coverage, a common sense concept lost on an Administration determined to force this law on you at any cost.”
President Barack Obama addressed the website debacle at an event promoting the Affordable Care Act on Monday. He said "there's no sugarcoating" the problems that have persisted since the website launched on October 1, and argued "nobody is more frustrated by that than I am."
Asked on CNN's "Piers Morgan Live" Monday night whether the administration would consider pushing back the deadline to sign up for insurance, White House spokesman Jay Carney didn't rule the option out, but argued they've long expected that most people wouldn't sign up for insurance until later on, anyway.
"We are three weeks into a six month process. So this is still [the] very early days," he said, before citing what they learned from the statewide insurance program in Massachusetts. "In these early stages, people spend a lot of time shopping. Most of the enrollment comes later, as the deadlines near. So we fully expect to have all of our systems operating more efficiently as we approach those deadlines."
HealthCare.gov: What works, what doesn't
Carney added that right now, they're focused on "making the system work."
"The product here is not a website," he said. "The product is affordable health insurance for Americans who haven't had it in the past."
Fmr. Obama innovation expert: HealthCare.gov created by "sloppy" contractors
Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear of Kentucky said people aren't having as tough a time signing up on his state's exchange, arguing that most of the problems are on the federal website.
Beshear also sounded confident everything will work out in the end, but was open to the idea of a possible pushback of the deadline.
"Deadlines tend to move, you know, when things don't work well, we'll move deadlines," he said on CNN's "New Day." "I don't know exactly what decisions will be made because we're not there yet...I feel confident that we will have time to get people in this system."
- CNN Political Editor Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
Hear about Fox "spews" planting their own people to comment on their blog? Think, Rick McDaniel.
California
Republicans called for it, democrats will be against it.
I think, no i know, you have that backwards.....
Rusty Krus
@California
Obama, the so called leader of the "I WILL NOT NEGOTIATE" party.
He will be our rightfully elected leader until January 2017. Enjoy!
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The word "leader" is a very debatable word when talking about Obama. If that the best you have you people are in serious trouble. Try running Mrs. Benghazi next.
Say it isn't so,
It is a well known fact that a Mid Air Collision will ruin you whole day.
It is also a well known fact that about 75 percent of the people should stay away from the Voting Booth.
@California
Obama, the so called leader of the "I WILL NOT NEGOTIATE" party.
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And good on him! America doesn't have a history of negotiating with terrorists or treasonists, and we aren't about to start now.
MaryM
Not gonna happen Rubio and TPers. Give it up TPers. Gallup poll has republicans at a 74% DISAPPROVAL RATING. TPers, The majority of Americans are sick and tired of your crap.
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Ya and what is the disapproval rating for the ACA??????????? That is right,OVER 50%!!!!!!!! The MAJORITY of Amercans are sick of the ACA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! By the way you are citing a poll from CNN who predicted Romney to win so how much can it really be trusted??? Got to love low information voters, see something on the internet and think it is all true. LOL
GOP news flashes:
We stopped government to be able to say "I told you the government was broken".
We want ACA delayed so we can say "I told you the ACA would be delayed."
I am going to throw a rock through that window to prove that it is broken. Does that make me Republican?
LOL
MaryM
Not gonna happen Rubio and TPers. Give it up TPers. Gallup poll has republicans at a 74% DISAPPROVAL RATING. TPers, The majority of Americans are sick and tired of your crap.
________________________
Ya and what is the disapproval rating for the ACA??????????? That is right,OVER 50%!!!!!!!! The MAJORITY of Amercans are sick of the ACA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! By the way you are citing a poll from CNN who predicted Romney to win so how much can it really be trusted??? Got to love low information voters, see something on the internet and think it is all true. LOL
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Frantic much? Spewing the same lies day in and day out will do that to a person. As for your over 50% claim; ask why many of those who DON'T approve, and a great many say it doesn't go far enough, which means they would approve it it went further, and when combined with those who approve, that number increases to approximately 65%.
Nope. Its the law. Web problems or no web problems. Figure out a way to get compliant, or write your penalty check. You can kick and scream all the way to the post office box...but its the law, so deal with it.
Ol' Yeller
@Missy681
I got a ticket for speeding today. I did not want the ticket and did not ask for the ticket, so therefore, by your reasoning, I shouldn't have to pay the ticket.
I'm free. I'm free!
______________
Are you serious??? WOW, did you BUY the ticket????? Talk about low information voter here wow, just wow!!!!
California
Obama, the so called leader of the "I WILL NOT NEGOTIATE" party.
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When you can tell us what was on the table to be negotiated, then your argument will be taken seriously.
The Tea Party offered nothing that was negotiable. I repeat, nothing. It's as if a group of home invaders broke into a home [the federal government], demanded the baby [Obamacare] so that they could kill it, and threatened to blow up the house [the US and global economies] with everyone inside if their demands were not met.
As the shutdown progressed, the demand progressed to give us the baby so that we can kill it later, while all of you stay in the house so that we can blow it up. That's what terrorists do.
Evergreen
@missy681 – I agree with you. It not fair to be forced to buy car insurance but in some States, you are penalized for driving without it. Also, it is an unwritten law that forces everyone to buy clothing. You don't have to buy clothing but public nudity is a crime in many States, so you really are forced to buy clothing. It's the law.
_____________
That logic FAILS, you don't have to drive if you don't want to buy car insurance, you don't have to leave your house if you don't want to buy clothes, but we are going to be punished just for living if we don't want to buy health insurance, THAT IS WRONG!!!!
@California
"Obama, the so called leader of the "I WILL NOT NEGOTIATE" party."
Actually it was heavily debated and negotiated and properly voted into law, vetted by the Supreme Court. Obama simply was not going to re-re-re-re-negotiate after the fact when the law was in place.
There is no 4th branch of government called The Whining. Perhaps a civics lesson is in order here.
But it us the "law of the land"!
Sniffit
"Our country has become a nation of hand out mentality"
Our country has become a nation of "I've got mine, screw you" mentality
FIFY
_______________________________
Jealous??? LOL It is not a nation of "I've got mine, screw you", it is called work ethic, personal responsibility, liberals need to learn those phrases!!!! American used to be all about hard work and personal responsibility but not anymore, it is all about give me, give me, I am entitled!!!
@LOL
Evergreen
@missy681 – I agree with you. It not fair to be forced to buy car insurance but in some States, you are penalized for driving without it. Also, it is an unwritten law that forces everyone to buy clothing. You don't have to buy clothing but public nudity is a crime in many States, so you really are forced to buy clothing. It's the law.
_____________
That logic FAILS, you don't have to drive if you don't want to buy car insurance, you don't have to leave your house if you don't want to buy clothes, but we are going to be punished just for living if we don't want to buy health insurance, THAT IS WRONG!!!!
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(Sarcasm alert for you Fox News readers) Oh that is so right – then I will choose not to get sick.
Jealous??? LOL It is not a nation of "I've got mine, screw you", it is called work ethic, personal responsibility, liberals need to learn those phrases!!!! American used to be all about hard work and personal responsibility but not anymore, it is all about give me, give me, I am entitled!!!
Bless your heart, LOL, but never have I thought that I'm entitled to anything. Then again, neither do I think that others shouldn't have the same opportunities I have had throughout my life.
Unfortunately, the GOP has been slowly but surely removing each and every rung on the ladder to success one rung at a time against those who really would like to improve themselves and find themselves facing one obstacle after another.
It has also removed the safety net for those who were able to climb that ladder and have slipped a notch or two along the way.
Data Driven
@missy681,
"I cannot believe that people actually think it's okay to force people to buy stuff they don't want"
Yeh, I know, right? Like car insurance. Child safety seats. Drivers licenses and other forms of photo ID. Vehicle registration. Smog checks. Working head- and tailights.
And that's just the automotive world. Shall I go on? How about the mandatory purchases related to child care?
___________
See my previous post, your argument fails as usual!!
republicans are taking the wrong approach. instead of proposing changes they should vbe insisting the law be fully implemented as the democrats wrote it and obama signed it. let's go for the full head on train wreck to show the american people exactly what fools the liberals and democrats are and why they cannot be trusted with running the government.
@Data-Actually you aren`t forced to buy car insurance or the other things you listed. You could walk or take the bus.
LOL wrote:
Jealous??? LOL It is not a nation of "I've got mine, screw you", it is called work ethic, personal responsibility, liberals need to learn those phrases!!!! American used to be all about hard work and personal responsibility but not anymore. ...
----------------
Jealous??? Nope, not at all. That's how the right wing mind works, not the left. You see someone with with something that you want, and you conspire a way to take if from them. Liberals simply stand back and gawk.
Americans have lost some of their drive to work hard. It's because they have lost their hard working jobs. The Bush administration shipped 8 million manufacturing jobs out of the country between 2001 and 2009. People worked hard all of their lives and the right wing rewarded them with a pink slip. Now you belittle them because they're the victims of corporate greed and vulture capitalists.
Silence DoGood
@California
"Obama, the so called leader of the "I WILL NOT NEGOTIATE" party."
Actually it was heavily debated and negotiated and properly voted into law, vetted by the Supreme Court. Obama simply was not going to re-re-re-re-negotiate after the fact when the law was in place.
There is no 4th branch of government called The Whining. Perhaps a civics lesson is in order here.
____________________
Yes the supreme court did up hold the law and PROVED that Obama lied! Didn't Obama say taxes will NOT increase because of the ACA, what did the supreme court call the penalty? That is right, a TAX, yet another lie from Obama! The law would NOT have passed if Obama called it a tax and he knew it so he called it a fine, he is so shady it is sick! The law was passed in the middle of the night in December, that tells you something right there.
LOL wrote:
Yes the supreme court did up hold the law and PROVED that Obama lied! Didn't Obama say taxes will NOT increase because of the ACA, what did the supreme court call the penalty? That is right, a TAX, yet another lie from Obama!
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Did your taxes go up? No. Did your neighbor's taxes go up? No. Did anyone that you know see their taxes go up? No. So what on earth are you talking about? Not yours , nor anyone that you know, saw their federal income taxes go up.
"The law was passed in the middle of the night in December, that tells you something right there."
Well, yes. It "tells" me that the law WAS passed.
Fancy that.
@smith,
Oh sure, you can take the bus. You must live in Brooklyn. If you live in Idaho, though, you need car.
You darn well need one in San Diego, I can tell you that.