martha: very big morning at the white house and on capitol hill. inside those doors the president is preparing to make a statement to the american people at 11:35. we understand he will propose a fix to obamacare. "happening now" gets started right now. >> take another fox news alert to get your attention here as we start off the show. we're certainly awaiting the president at 11:35 to make a big statement on the health care law. early reporting suggest that is he will say canceled health insurance policies in the private market will be allowed to be renewed. again early reporting, the details are very tricky in all of this and the words matter here more than ever. we'll bring you the president live, 11:35. in the meantime on the hill today the house energy and commerce panel is hearing testimony on the rocky obamacare rollout. this as a senate confirmation hearing is underway for the president's nominee to be the next chairman of the federal reserve.

plus, the house homeland security panel is grilling the tsa chief on a program costing taxpayers a whole lot of money. we have a lot going on today. we're glad you're with us. we'll be on top of it all and bring you news as it happens. jon: right now, to our top story. we're awaiting a statement from president obama on the botched rollout of obamacare. we don't expect him to say that it was botched but i never know. the cancellation of millions of health care policies as well is something he is expected to address. fox news has learned the president will announce a plan to let those americans keep their insurance plans if they have them. more on that as we get it. right now lawmakers on capitol hill are still trying to get to the bottom of the failed health carrollout as another house panel gets set to consider new legislation. good morning to you. it is a very busy morning. i'm jon scott. jenna: i'm jenna lee. jon, you bring up a great point. what would the president say about the actions thus far in the six weeks of the rollout? jon: right.

thus far not much indication from the white house that he thinks there is a great deal wrong. jenna: we'll see what he has to say. will there be some sort of apology? we may be going too far. how will he address it, how will he frame it? that is the big question today. look what is happening not far from the white house as the house energy and commerce subcommittee, there's a hearing that is dealing with more of the problems related to this rollout as well as the troublesome website t must be a busy day on capitol hill where we find chief congressional correspondent mike emanuel covering this side of the story as well as we're getting fresh reaction, mike, from lawmakers what they're expecting from the president. how much what the president will say today is geared toward people inside the building where you are right now? >> reporter: jenna, no question it has a big part to do with that because white house officials have gotten an earful from democratic allies on the

hill who are looking for a fix. they are being canceled from their insurance policies they like. what we understand from democratic source that is the president will announce an administrative fix that will say, if you're policy is being canceled, the insurance company can give it back to you. you can be covered by that policy, even if it doesn't meet the obamacare standards. now that seems to epup a can of worms in other regards to the health care law. we can get some more of that. but we got a sense that something was in the works from house democratic leader nancy pelosi. >> stay tuned. we'll just see, could be an administrative fix. it could be a legislative fix. i would rather it be done administratively because that can be done much more quickly without any accompanying agendas. >> reporter: the backstory is that the house is set to vote tomorrow on a bill from republican fred upton which says you can keep your insurance policy. and by the way, the insurance companies can continue selling those policies to new customers.

a lot of democrats saw that as undermining the president's health care law. so house democrats and senate democrats are saying give us a fix. give us something we can give our constituents, jenna. jenna: that is something we should point out, mike, isn't it? because the president says something can happen now that doesn't necessarily mean there is legislation to back that up. meaning if you call your health insurance company suddenly today, if this is indeed the announcement we get, you can keep a canceled plan it doesn't appear like there is any teeth that would force the health insurance company to offer that back to you. so, you mentioned a little bit what the republicans are saying. what is the latest from them as far as what fixes they would like to see with the health care law? >> reporter: senate republicans have been taking to the senate floor all morning laying out stories of their constituents and essentially horror stories with people who had preexisting conditions, who had health care they like, now being canceled. here is senate republican leader mitch mcconnell. >> i will start off with james dodson.

he is a constituent of mine from owensboro. james has type-2 diabetes. he recently got a letter informing his high-risk pool coverage would expire next month. >> reporter: meanwhile house lawmakers are prepping for a vote tomorrow on the fred upton bill that would allow people to keep their current insurance and also allow the insurance companies to continue to selling those policies, really competing with obamacare. another leading house republican offered this prediction. >> i think it will pass the house. i don't know, you know, whether it will be considered in the senate. i have my doubt about that. so i tend to think this law is going to continue to have more problems as people, you know, try to engage and get on. and i think the backlash is going to continue into 2014. >> reporter: so the breaking news of the hour as we expect the president will announce

grand fathering of existing insurance policies to many americans that gotten cancellation notices while the house prepares to vote on a separate measure tomorrow. jenna. jenna: another busy day. mike, thank you very much. jon: so we are now 30 minutes away we are told from a statement from the president on obamacare after the white house finally released some very dismal enrollment numbers. the administration missing its mark to enroll people in obamacare by a wide margin, just over 106,000 americans in total have signed up nationwide. this with the president already facing a revolt from his fellow democrats after millions of americans had their insurance plans canceled. so what's the president going to say just moments from now? let's get it into with juan williams, fox news political analyst. jonah goldberg, editor-at-large from the nationalreview.online and fox news contributor. juan, to you first. we haven't heard much from the president. he issued kind of an apology when he spoke to nbc news but it

was not really an apology for the mess that has been created. it was something less than that. what do you think he is going to say this morning? >> well i think we know he is going to say that he is going to buy into the plan suggested by senator landrieu of louisiana, that would allow people who have had their policies canceled to keep them. he is not going to subscribe to the plan that would come from fred upton, the republican and will go to a house vote as you point out earlier, jon, tomorrow, friday, that would allow the insurance companies to sell plans that have been canceled to new people. that would totally undermine obamacare t would take away necessary money, subsidies, that would have to go into the program to in order to support the subsidies that are going to go to people who currently don't have insurance. jon: all right. jonah, can you make some sense of all that for me? >> sure. i think juan is essentially right. what obama is going to try and do, first of all what i think he

is going to say, to hell with this, i'm going to disney world. he is having a bad couple weeks here. basically what they're trying to do, they're trying to give democrats some kind of lifeline so that they don't actually have to vote to truly gut obamacare. if either of the upton or the landrieu bills pass, it would essentially spell the end of the obamacare exchanges which is heart of the entire legislation because, what it would say is, that the healthy, affluent, middle class people who like their health care plans, they don't have to get on the exchanges. that would leave only essentially the uninsurables, the sick, the poor, the people with preexisting conditions, would race to the exchanges because they couldn't go to the private market. if that were the case, you get people whose premiums are going to skyrocket and at the end of the day that was exactly what would cause the death spiral. any of these fixes, whether legislative or administrative will have the same up shot of

basically delaying the inevitable demise of obamacare as far as i can tell. jon: juan, that takes us back to the very beginnings, the very premise of this whole process. there were about, as i understand it, 15 million americans who doesn't have health insurance, and in order to provide insurance to those 15 million people the president upended the entire applecart. now is he trying to put the apples back in? >> well, i disagree with your premise, jon. jon: all right. >> i think it is more than the uninsured. i think there are lots of people who are underinsured, people who had some kind of a policy, but in fact they had a terrible accident or illness befall them, people could be kicked off the plans, the insurance companies don't want to renew you, you're sick or people with preexisting condition, et cetera. a lot of people are underinsured. don't forget insurance in this country is costly and burden to business. there are lots of reasons you want to change the status quo of

the when you say put the apples back in the cart, that is the problem here. i mean jonah and you both say it, i think it is just so right. look, you start pulling on this thing and it is like an old frayed sweater. the sweater may come apart. even with the landrieu bill, the question are you keeping, remember, the loud vocal constituency complaining are small business people, people of some income. you're not hearing this complaint from people who are the low end of the scale who would be getting subsidies and better deals on insurance. jon: well, jonah, we have a graphic that shows how many people have had their plans canceled across the country. it is in excess of five million folks. now, if you've got 110,000 who have signed up through the federal exchanges, that leaves about 4.9 million who still don't have insurance and probably don't know where it's going to come from at this point. talk about pulling on the

string? >> no. that's right. i mean, my colleague in "national review", jim guarranty, says obama care is like a jenga tower but all the blocks are tied together. very difficult to pull any pieces out. look, this is a fundamental problem. the administration, the promise to say thaw can keep your health care plan if you like it was sort of like a car salesman saying hey, you can get a great deal by trading in your existing car for a new car and by the way, you get to keep your car. doesn't work that way. you can't obamacare the way it was designed and have people say on their existing plans in very large numbers. the administration by its own estimates in the federal register in 2010 said that they were looking at something like 93 million people could be exposed to having their plans altered or changed or done away with because of obamacare. it is not just the individual market. it is going to be the employer market too. just those regulations haven't kicked in yet. this is the first wave of it. >> you're both political

analysts. wage, i want to start with you. is this sort of sudden, news, well, statement from the white house, is it all about the 2014 elections and democrats who are running scared right now? >> yeah. i mean i think the big news this week, jon, has been, you know, you said running scared. i think that is exactly right. look, democrats on the hill right now have started to panic and you know, for the longest time the argument had been look, these republicans they just want, they want to undermine obamacare. the one thing that unites republicans in this country all the divisions in the party, we hate obamacare and obama. they didn't want to give in. democrats are saying this is not what the republicans have been doing. this is about incompetence on part of the white house rolling out the program. they have been giving ammunition to the republicans. now democrats saying we're worried about our own political fortunes. jon: let me get a quick thought on that jonah.

>> essentially juan is right. juan says that they're all these problems with the existing health care system, with the status quo. he is right about all that. the existing health care system was really bad and that was an argument to do something. as long as abstract arguments about doing something versus not doing something it was very beneficial for democrats and liberals. but now that is not the choice. the choice is between accepting obamacare which is a mess or doing something else. all of sudden that argument is much better for republicans. they're not arguing about abstractions they're arguing about disasterous mess of a piece of legislation. jon: a lot of something to look concrete that is actually happening. notices coming in the mail. jonah, juan, thank you for you both. we'll see what the president has to say. jenna: those comments, those words are coming up at 11:35. we're about 20 minutes away. juan and jonah will be back for analysis after those comments. so stay with us for all of that.

just in to us, we have brand new numbers on the devastation in the philippines, the death toll rising with thousands of survivors desperate for food and water and shelter. a live report from the heart of 9 destruction moments from now. a scare in the sky. the pilot announcing to a plane full of passengers that they're going down. the tense moments and how it all ended, next. >> he says we're going down. and everybody is looking around like, is this a joke? is he serious? when he

jenna: what is happening in washington, d.c., we don't want to forget what is happening in other parts of the country including what is happening in texas, milford, texas, south of dallas, a town of 700, 800 people. there was a natural gas pipeline explosion that just happened. you're seeing live images of part of this explosion on your screen right now. the important thing to mention here there are evacuations in

the area. according to some social media reports, the town is being evacuated. we're seeing according to our sources there are people being evacuated near highway 77 and 308. there is evacuations of homes and businesses as well. 10:00 in the morning, just after 10:00 in the morning in texas, milford, texas, a natural gas pipeline explosion. we'll keep you posted as we hear more details what stance paired here and how folks are doing in the area. more as we get it. jon: as you can imagine there were some scary moments in midair when the pilot of a southwest airlines flight tells passengers, quote, we're going down. of the people panicked as the jet went into sudden descent and pulling out their cell phones to call and text loved ones. patti ann browne has details what happened from the new york city newsroom. >> jon, tuesday night on the flight from tampa, florida, to raleigh-durham, north carolina were terrified when the pilot announced in a panicked voice

that the plane was going down. >> everybody is looking around like, is this a joke? is he serious? when we saw the nosedive. >> reportedly passengers heard popping sound like shots in the cabin. then the pilot said something like, we're in trouble. we're going down. and then the plane dropped thousands of feet as it approached rdu. cheryl wills who we just saw the women next to her was flying for the first time. she was clutching her chest and wills who was a nurse tried to calm her fearing she was having a heart attacked. many passengers, called or texted loved ones to say good-bye. then the boeing 737 leveled out and landed safely in raleigh-durham. passengers clapped and cried. the pilot said, thank you for hanging with us. southwest airlines says it was because after maintenance alert. the faa is investigating that the alert was prompted by

irregular cabin pressure. as for wills she texted her daughter and husband during the nosedive. i love you. my plane is going down. now the incident has given her a new perspective. jon. jon: the airlines said the pilots was trying to address the flight attendants only and got out on the pa, right? >> right. a lot more investigating to do. jon: i think he was trying to say we were going lower. it didn't come out that way. patti ann browne thank you. >> thanks. jenna: unfortunate use of words there. brand new information on the killer typhoon in the philippines today. the death to is rising to more than 2300 people despite massive efforts to rush crist call supplies of food, water, shelter to desperate survivors. david piper streaming live from bangkok, thailand with more. david? >> reporter: hi, jenna. a lot of people in the central philippines are really just hanging on waiting for that aid to a-- arrive but the relief operation got a much-needed boost with arrival of u.s.

ships. five have arrived, including the carrier uss george washington. the helicopters are likely to be at forefront of moving aid to more isolated areas. the carrier's ability to produce clean water will be key to helping those in need. germantown and ashland are now being sent from the u.s. base in okinawa. these will be able to bring in aid to many as of yet unreachable areas. britain is also sending a carrier and japan is intending to send troops. france and belgium set up a joint field hospital attack low ban's airport. with then of u.s. marines on the ground they have now managed to get operational around the clock that airport which was smashed by the typhoon. the town was decimate mate i had by a storm surge caused by typhoon haiyan, flattened many buildings. mass burials were taking place today. the death toll now stands at 2300. back to you, jenna. jenna: david piper from

thailand. more on the typhoon as we get it. david, thank you. jon: we're less than 15 minutes away now from this fox news alert from a statement from the white house. the president is expected to speak to the nation regarding obamacare. what will he say? that's coming up. hey, i notice your car yeah. it's in the shop. it's going to cost me an arm and a leg. you shoulda taken it to midas. they tell you what stuff needs fixing, and what stuff can wait. high-five! arg! brakes, tires, oil, everything. (whistling)

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jon: fox news alert. we are 10 minutes away from an address by the president there. it appears to be taking place in the brady briefing room at the white house. we expect him to say something like this. if you like your health care plan you can keep it. have you heard that before? jenna: i think i heard that once or twice before, jon. jon: yeah. we are understanding that the president is going to say now that if you like your health care plan and hates been canceled, well, he is going to direct the insurance companies who have canceled you to allow

some kind of an administrative fix he calls it that will allow them to reinstate you, even if they don't meet the obamacare requirements. >> but he can't force that. we have to make sure we offer a little bit of a disclaimer before we hear from the president, jon. there are administrative fixes there are limits to his power. jon: right. so we're anxiously awaiting what the president has to say. he will be up at podium we're told in 10 minutes although this white house as many others before it operate as little bit late. but it is scheduled about 10 minutes from now. we'll have it for you live. jenna: another big story today, a judge sentencing mobster james "whitey" bulger to life terms plus five years in prison. the jury convicted him of 11 of 19 killings he was charged. meanwhile chaos outside the courtroom just continues in the face. sentencing phase of the trial pitting victim's families against jurors. we have sound hopefully. we'll get that for you in a

moment. meantime i want to bring in our legal panel today. rebecca rose woodland, a trial attorney and ashley merchant. a criminal defense attorney. we'll hopefully grab the sound. it wasn't quite ready. a juror, juror number 12, who after the conviction of "whitey" bulger been communicating with him in prison and she, now says, she deeply regrets the verdict and has pretty serious accusations about the case. rebecca, the question is, will this somehow affect the appeals? you have the sentencing today but does this mean that "whitey" bulger lives another day and another trial? >> not necessarily. she could have thoughts about the verdict. she could have concerns about what happened but her concerns could be founded in non-legal based reasons. the appeal will go, the court of appeals will review the legal reasons why there was a possibility that he didn't get a fair trial. of course his attorneys are

going to appeal but it's a very hard and a long stretch for a juror interpreting after a verdict what she thinks was unfair to what the legal evidence and what the law applied to that evidence will play out in an appeal court? jenna: ashley, i want to get your thoughts in a moment of the the name of the juror is janet uhler. here is some sound -- >> i would have voted would have been a hung jury. i wish i had done that now. we were deceived. we were held captive. jenna: she is also an author. one wonders what sort prove project she might work on, ashley. what are your thoughts on this? is this grounds for an appeal? >> i think it is very unlikely this would help in the appeal but there are ways that it could help. his defense lawyers would probably want to argue ineffective assistance of counsel if she said having bulger testify would have changed her opinion, they can use that to sort of bolster their case.

the verdict was based on what was heard at the trial, now what evidence she now determined. that really doesn't factor in. i think this is unlikely it will help in the appeal. i will point out, if there is any juror misconduct, if there is any juror misconduct found, if she was communicating with bulger during the trial or doing outside research during the trial. that definitely could undermind the verdict and lead to an appeal. jenna: rebecca, we know that hasn't been the case but we don't know everything. obviously we didn't know she was exchanging letters with bulger until yesterday. she is appealing to the u.s. senate judiciary committee about this. she wants an investigation into what happened at the trial. and there's a bigger picture here because one of the things that the family members said yesterday, is a few of them took on the u.s. government, took on the fbi. listen if "whitey" bulger is guilty, some of your fbi informants and fbi guys are just, in the least terms, being

unprofessional and other accusations, conspiracy and everything else. this is part, this is part of this story. we wonder where it goes from here. >> you know, jenna the story continues, when we covered this, and i covered this with you on this show during the day we see crazy antics in the courtroom and it has continued. now maybe the family members feel that but how the federal authorities conduct an investigation, how they get witnesses to testify, who they give leniency to in sentencing that is really up to them and reviews within their agency. we as lay people do not determine how justice should be served or handled. the court of appeals can, yes. and i'm sure the different, the prosecution an the defense will present arguments in the appeal and a court of appeals will decide whether or not there are, there is enough misconduct to have another trial but i agree with "ashlee", i sincerely doubt there will be another trial in this case. jenna: i'm sorry we have to run.

we have the president coming up. i appreciate your both analysis today. it is an interesting case. we'll watch and see what happens next. >> thank you, jenna. >> thanks. >> fox news alert. we are waiting to hear about what is called an administrative fix we are told. the president is going to wave a magic wand and say that those people who have had health insurance policies and liked them and have lost them, the companies provided them can keep the people on the rolls even if the policies did not meet the terms, the strict requirements of obamacare. as you know millions of people, millions of americans have lost their health care coverage as a result of the implementation of the affordable care act. the president appears to be answering some of the rebellion within his own party. and offering what may be a fix, but the devil is in the details. what will the president precisely propose?

that is what we are about to find out. he is scheduled to speak about three minutes from now. we'll have it for you live when the president takes to the microphone there in the west wing.

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jon: fox news alert. as we await the president we are hearing from the speaker of the house john boehner. he has called obamacare, a rolling calamity that must be scrapped. let's listen in. >> it shouldn't stop reasonable

democrats from working witheep e and give the american people the opportunity keep the plan they have and the plan they like. >> [inaudible] >> i am highly skeptical that they can do this administratively. i just don't see, within the law, their ability to do that. that is why the house is going to move tomorrow. i would hope the senate would move quickly as well. >> [inaudible] >> we'll see what the president has to say here in a few minutes and then we'll have a better idea of exactly whether they can or can't. >> [inaudible] >> no. listen, we have these periodic

meetings with the chairman about the issue of tax reform. we believe the tax reform would be good for our economy, would help produce more jobs and frankly higher wages. so this is informational meeting to kind of see where they are and, i don't know what the outcome of the meeting is going to be but that is not the purpose of the meeting. you, with all that gray hair on your face. >> [inaudible] how can you now, how can you now get rid of obamacare if this many people have -- [inaudible] >> well, how about the millions of americans who have lost their health insurance and millions more who are going to lose their health insurance over the next year as the small business plan

years come up and all of sudden those polys are no longer available? it's, you can't fix the government-run health care plan called obamacare. this is going to destroy the best health care delivery system in the world. you know, if you go back four or five months ago the congressional budget office said even after this law's in effect for 10 years, 10 years from now, there will still be 30 million americans uninsured. that is not the promise that was made to the american people. it is just not fixable. >> [inaudible] >> well, listen, i think we've been trying to stay focused on

the economy. trying to do those things that would help create a better economy. and it is stopping needless and burdensome regulation that is are killing jobs in america or whether it is trying to fix a tax code that is so complicated most americans could never figure it out on their own, whether it is dealing with the farm bill, whether dealing with water projects, there's a lot that can be done. listen, we have a very divided country and we have a very divided government and i'm not going to sit here and underestimate the difficulty in finding the common ground because there is not as much common ground here as there used to be. but our job is to find that common ground. i intend to do it. >> [inaudible] >> i think it's a separate issue

and i made that very clear to chairman ryan. >> [inaudible] >> listen, i am oppose toddies crime nation of any kind in the work place and any place else. but i think this legislation that i've dealt with as chairman of the educational workforce committee long before i was back into leadership, is unnecessary and would provide a basis for frivolous lawsuits. it, people are already protected in the work place. so i am, i'm opposed to continuing this. listen, i understand people have different opinions on this issue and i respect those opinions but it is someone who worked in this employment law area for all of

my years in the statehouse and all of my years here, i see no basis or no need for this. >> [inaudible] >> oh, yeah, well there's a whole laundry list of issues that can yet be finish and and i'm hopeful they will be. >> [inaudible] >> i don't know that in the national defense authorization bill that that issue ought to be dealt with. it ought to be dealt with on its own. this is a very, it is an important issue and what the nsa does, protects the american people, protects frankly our allies around the world. yes, i think there are changes that need to be made but they need to be made in a very thoughtful way, very. >> [inaudible]

>> listen, we've been down this road with iran many times and until the iranians are willing to stop all development of their nuclear program there's no reason for us to lift these sanctions. the house has already acted on further sanctions. or as i would describe them further tools for the administration's tool box. it is over in the senate. i will leave that decision to the senate. >> final question. >> [inaudible] >> well, this year is quickly coming to a close.

i think it is too early to make that prediction, pure and simple. you know, when we, when obamacare was on the floor of the house 3 1/2 years ago we offered an alternative and you can go to health, gop.gov and you can see the nine issues that are outlined there that we've been for for the last four or five years. they are common sense things that we can do to help the american people have better access to high-quality, affordable health insurance. and that is what we ought to be doing. >> [inaudible] >> that is the weekly news conference from the speaker of the house. he has that news conference just about every thursday at this time. interesting timing because today he is competing with the attention of the white house, or competing for the attention, for attention with the white house. the president scheduled to speak

about eight minutes ago. as often happens the president is a bit late. he is going to be talking about the affordable care act. meantime, that health care debacle seems to be taking a toll on the president's approval ratings with the american people. according to the latest "fox news poll" just 40% of americans approve of his overall job performance, an all-time high number of 55% disapprove of the job he's doing. let's sort through some of this as we way eight the president's remarks with fox news political analyst, angela mcglowan. we understand, angela, president will come out and say, oh, just kidding. if you like your health care plan you really can keep it if those health care companies allow you to stay on the plans they just canceled. clearly he is listening to those democrats running for office in 2014 and maybe listening to the american people and polls like fox news one we just read.

>> jon, this president is very political. there is old cliche, the truth crashed to the ground will rise again but a lie will never stand. also a party divided can not stand. those are two variables working against this president. you can't open up pandora's box and let the genie out and pull the genie back in. the bottom line is this, jon, people want to trust their leaders and if you look at these poll numbers, 59% of the american people don't trust this president. they don't believe that the president told them the truth when he said you could keep your health care plan. also they believe when he did say that that he was lying. they also believe the majority of american people, that when he did apologize, that it was not sincere. >> let's go through some of those numbers so our viewers can see them specifically. when asked what they think about president obama's handling of health care. 36% of americans say they approve. 61% disapprove.

>> disapprove. jon: yeah. then also, when asked about whether the president telling americans they could keep their health care plan was knowingly lying. >> right. jon: 50% say yeah, knowingly lied when he told us that time and time again. if you are the top administrator in the land, the man who is charged with protecting all americans, that's a pretty bad number, angela. >> that's a pretty bad number and jon, i truly believe the republicans have a grand opportunity to take the house and the senate in 2014. but they just can't bash obamacare. they can't say we need to repeal it. i have to disagree with speaker boehner. he says that the country is divided more so than before and congress is divided but that is true but one thing people want, they want solutions and republicans can step up to the plate and give a solution to this health care debacle. a solution to the lack of jobs and anemic economy. i believe republicans should put

together a plan to put america back on the pathway to prosperity. if they do that, they can win the house and the senate. jon: there are some elements of obama care that people seem to like. the requirement that if your child is 26 years old or under, that child can stay on his or her insurance policies. people seem to like that. the ban on dropping coverage with people with preexisting conditions. people seem to like that. why not cherry-pick some of the things people like and put that into practice some way and deal with the health care system on that basis? >> when boehner talks about going to a website to see some of the things republicans are offering dealing with affordable health care, take those things, with the things that you just named and look, we are america. we can solve our problems. government is supposed to protect the consumer. so it is time now for government to step up to the plate, jon and solve the problem. instead of the partisan politics and instead of the president

doing press conferences, they all need to come together and fix it. >> but the president has said time and time again and other democrats have said this, that republicans don't have any other proposals. he said, have you heard any? i haven't. that is what he has said. >> case in point, republicans need to go out with a message, a precise message, a cohesive message. we don't need conservative message. we don't need the red trick. we don't need the tea party messages. what are you going to do, republicans to create a better america and that's what americans want. right now they're tired of the kabuki theater. they're tired of partisan politics and people are tired of living paycheck to paycheck, jon. now time for republicans instead of talking about the affordable care act and how bad it is, what are you going to do to fix it? what solution are you going to bring to the table. jon: right. and people also, i will just put up one more last poll before we say good-bye.

people also seem to feel the affordable care act, obamacare, should be fully delayed for a year. almost 2/3, 63%, say at least delay this law for a year. angela mcglowan, fox news political analyst. thank you for being with us. >> thank you, jon. jenna: we're awaiting the president which we expected about, well a little more than 10 minutes ago. jon: scheduled for 11:35 eastern. it is now 11:49. >> knows how to keep an audience waiting. angela talked about solutions and what is being offered. republican congressman fred upton had legislation he wanted to offer, was considering, which would allow you, if your insurance company was canceling your plan, what it would do, it would allow the company to your that plan to you but also offer it to new customers as well. apparently according to the "wall street journal" today that is one of the things that motivated the administration to get more involved now, because that bills that legislation was expected to be moved this

friday. they don't want that to happen. they don't want more people to come back into the private insurance market because there's a part of the new health care law that needs to fund -- funnel all the healthy people into the health care exchanges. there is careful balance with all that. we can't get into the metrics or put up a whiteboard to explain awe the math. but this is part of issue settings up the entire law having right number of people into the insurance pool, into the market so that premiums do not skyrocket and appropriate people do get care that they need. you can see we're awaiting the president. juan williams is standing by, fox news political analyst. that is the question now, juan. what is the solution and what actually can be offered and six weeks into the law perhaps too late to change americans opinions about this law? >> jenna, you're right on target when you say the question is one of confidence and trust and i think if you look at the political polls right now you can see that is what thed is bleeding. people are saying wait a second, you misled me, some people say

lied whether or not i could keep my policy and the website's not working so people who are seeking to explore and try and look, say, wait a second, what happened to your promise this was going to be an easy system for me to navigate? so on both counts i think the president is losing trust and public confidence and if that confidence then extends beyond this period, it would also undermine the obamacare legislation because it would take out the very people you were discussing, people who have money and who are fairly healthy and would go into this exchange and buy insurance an then subsidize the people who don't have health insurance at this point and who are low income. that's the problem and that is why it is so important that the president try to stop the bleeding of confidence and trust today. jenna: juan, it is interesting, jonah goldberg back with us, editor-at-large with nationalreview.online and fox news contributor and both juan and jonah will help us with the

president today which we're so greatful for. jonah there is bigger issue. it is not just about the president and the democrats. in general when you look at polling, some of the polls an all-time low for all parties for all lawmakers, the trust of the american people in the government right now is extraordinarily low. obamacare aside, obamacare is part of that but what about repairing all of that? how significant is this law to that bigger question about how much we're trusting our leaders, not only with the direction of the country but with our own health as well? >> i think it's a good point. you know, coming on the bad feelings about how president bush or the republicans handled national security on bush's watch in terms of how iraq and afghanistan went, there is a general lack of confidence in how government can do big things. the libertarian in me doesn't necessarily weep over that. i kind of like the idea that people have lower expectations for what government can do.

and at least republicans who say government can't do anything well have been proven right for a while. in terms of obamacare, the bigger fatality or bigger casualty for coming out of obamacare is really the ambitions of the, sort of progress sieve left who have been arguing for a long time but particularly since obama came to power they know exactly what to do and how to do it. if just given the power they could put in the wonderful new policies that will fix everything and do everything right and that is simply, that is what they got for the first two years of the obama presidency. now as it is being implemented it is turning out not as appear to be easy as they said it was. jon: yeah, juan, that seems what millions of americans are waking up to, this grand government plan simply isn't functioning. >> yeah, well, so far they're right. the website's not functioning. so if that's it, yes. but the question is if you fix

the website and hopefully they will fix the website although what we heard from the testimony from the i.t. people yesterday in front of congress was they are not sure it will be done by november 30th as had been promised, jon. that, the question becomes do people going to the website find that the policies offered there are attractive, affordable, better than what they have? and are enough people registering that it would a basis, financial basis for insurance companies to provide insurance to everyone including people who get the federal subsidies. so far it is just hasn't worked. i think that is why i say it's a tremendous confidence problem for the president and the administration. >> jonah, you write in "the national review" online, about freud and haw to applies in this circumstance. maybe encapsulate that for our viewers. >> sure. as we were saying earlier, republicans were called

everything from extremists and anarchists. magazines like, i don't know, "salon," and what not for opposing obamacare. and any criticism was a sign of delusion and racism and that you didn't like puppies or something. and then all of a sudden when obamacare stops being this abstraction, stops being, you know, this idea that we're just going to do good for everybody and it actually rolled out, you know, it turns out to be a disaster. and i think that conservatives and republicans get to gloat a little and say we told you so. i mean, even the word "rollout" is false advertising. this thing has been moving, you know, rollout implies rolling. this thing's like trying to push a refrigerator up a flight of stairs. and the simple thing, i mean, i think juan is right. eventually, they're going to fix the web site, but the web site is just the beginning, it's just a doorway to at least what a lot of conservatives believe is a

house of horrors. and the fundamental problem the obama administration faces is that they sold this as if everyone was going to be a winner. there would be no losers. everyone's going to get better coverage, every family was going to save $2500, more people would get coverage, it wouldn't cost anything, it would bend the cost curve down, it's a floor wax and, you know, it's a dessert topping. it was going to be everything for everybody, and you simply can't do public policy that way. every public policy creates winners or and losers, and the losers in this are i now complaining, and they have no plan for it. they were completely can caught off guard by it. jon: and a chicken in every pot. jonah goldberg and juan williams, thanks for sticking with us. we are still awaiting the president who is 21 minutes behind schedule, but i'm sure there's a lot to talk about wherever he is right now. the press corps is assembled in the west wing. we understand he's going to make some administrative fixes as we are told to the program.

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jon: a fox news alert and on this thursday the president is going to take to the podium in the white house press room, the brady briefing room, and tell reporters that there is an administrative fix, we understand, for obamacare as we understand it, and we'll wait to hear from the president, but the president is going to say if you had a policy and if you liked it, you can keep it, but there's a but, right, jenna? jenna: there is, pause the big question is -- because the big question is how much power can an administrative fix really have in the insurance companies have certainly shifted over the last three years plus getting ready for this law and its implementation, and they have changed some of their insurance policies. so even if the president comes up to the podium today and says, as we expect him to, that you can keep the plan you liked, how

can you get that plan back? and whether or not the insurance company will be willing to do that. jon: can you put the toothpaste back in the tube? jenna: i've heard that expression, i wonder how many people have tried it? [laughter] jon: wendell goler is waiting for the president, as we are. he's in the white house briefing room, what can you tell us? >> reporter: we just got the two minute warning about, oh, 23 minutes late. the president is bowing to pressure, if you will, offering a transition for those people in the individual insurance market whose plans don't meet the standards of the affordable care act, who have received notices from their insurance companies that their plans will end at the end of the year. it's a one-year fix. it's up to the insurance companies to take it. it only applies to those people who had these plan -- who have these plans in effect now, tsa the objection that the white house has to a republican counterproposal being offered which they say would basically

allow insurance companies to sell substandard plans to new subscribers. this only applying to people who have received notices, who have these plans now, and it's only good for one year, jon. jon: so we are, what, just a minute or so away from the president. the question, wendell, is can he just do this with an administrative proclamation? >> reporter: well, the folks at hhs say they can do it as an administrative fix, if you will. it's when -- they believe it's within the discretion of the center for medicaid services to offer this transition. they certainly don't want to put it before congress. they don't want a legislative fix here, and they don't at all agree with the republican proposal that's likely to be voted on tomorrow, jon. jon: all right. webb dell goler at the white house -- wendell goler at the white house where are we are awaiting the president. john williams is still with us,

and we expect the president to walk out any minute now. we got the two minute warning, and right on cue, here he is, back to you in a moment. >> good afternoon. today i want to update the american people on our efforts to implement and improve the affordable care act, and i'll take a couple of your questions, but before i do, i i just want to say a few words about the tragedy that's unfolded in the philippines. over the past few days, i think all of us have been shaken by the images of the devastation wrought by typhoon haiyan. it's a heartbreaking reminder of how fragile life is, and among the dead are several americans. so our prayers are with the filipino people and with filipino-americans across our country who are anxious about their family and friends back home. you know, one of our core principles is when friends are in trouble, america helps. as i told president acquit know earlier this week, the united states will continue to offer

whatever assistance we can. our military personnel and usaid team do this better than think about in the world, and they've been already on the ground working tirelessly to deliver food, water, medicine, shelter and to help with airlift. today the aircraft carrier uss george washington and other ships arrived to help with search and rescue as well as supplies, medical care and logistical support. and more help is on the way. america's strength, of course, has always been more than just about what our government can do, it's also about what our citizens can do. it's about the big-heartedness of the american people when they see other folks in this trouble. so today i would encourage everybody who wants to help to visit white house.gov/typhoon, that's whitehouse.gov/typhoon, and that'll offer links to organizations that are working on the ground and ways that you can support their efforts. our friends in the philippines

will face a long, hard road ahead, but they'll continue to have a p friend and partner in the united states of america. now, switching gears, it has now been six weeks since the affordable care act's new marketplaces opened for business. i think it's fair to say that the rollout has been rough so far, and i think everybody understands that i'm not happy about the fact that the rollout has been, you know, wrought with a whole range of problems that i've been deeply concerned about. but today i want to talk about what we know after these first few weeks and what we're doing to implement and improve the law. yesterday the white house announced that in the first month more than 100,000 americans successfully enrolled in new insurance plans. is that as high a number as we'd like? absolutely not. but it does mean that people

want affordable health care. the robs of the -- the problems of the web site have prevented too many americans from completing the enrollment process, and that's on us, not on them. but there's no question that there's real demand for quality, affordable health insurance. in the first month, nearly a million people successfully completed an application for themselves or their families. those applications represent more than 1.5 million people. of those 1.5 million people, 106,000 of them have successfully signed up to get covered, another 396,000 had the ability to gain access to medicaid under the affordable care act. that's been less reported on, but it shouldn't be, you know? americans who are having a difficult time who are poor, many of them working, may have a disability, they're americans like everybody else. and the fact that they are now able to get insurance is going to be critically important. later today i'll be in ohio

where governor kasich, a republican, has expanded insurance under the affordable care act, and as many as 275,000 ohioans will be better off because of it, and if every governor followed suit, another 5.4 million americans could gain access to health care next year. so bottom line is in just one month despite all the problems that we've seen with the web site, more than 500,000 americans could know the security of health care by january 1st. many of them for the first time in tear lives. and that's -- in their lives. and that's life changing. and it's significant. that still leaves about one million americans who successfully made it through the web site not quaffed by insurance -- qualified by insurance, but haven't picked a plan yet. and there's no question that if the web site were working as it's supposed to, that number would be much higher of people who have actually enrolled. so that's probable number one -- problem number one, making sure

the web site works the way it's supposed to. it's gotten a lot better than it was on the first day, but we're working 24/7 to get it working for the vast majority of americans in a smooth, consistent way. the other problem that has received a lot of attention concerns americans who have received letters from their insurers that they may be losing the plans they bought in the old individual market often because they no longer meet the law's requirements to cover basic benefits like prescription drugs or doctors' visits. now, as i indicated earlier, i completely get how upsetting this can be for a lot of people, particularly after assurances they heard from me that if they had a plan that they liked, they could keep it. and to those americans, i hear you loud and clear. i said that i would do everything we can to fix this problem, and today i'm offering an idea that will help do it. already people who have plans

that predate the affordable care act can keep those plans if they haven't changed. that was already in the law. that's what's called a grandfather clause that was included in the law. today we're going to extend that principle both to people whose plans have changed since the law took effect and to people who bought plans since the law took effect. so state insurance commissioners still have the power to decide what plans can and can't be sold in their states, but the bottom line is insurers can extend current plans that would otherwise be canceled into 2014, and americans whose plans have been canceled can choose to reenroll in the same kind of plan. we're also requiring insurers to extend current plans to inform their customers about two things. one, that protections -- what protections these renewed plans don't include. number two, that the marketplace offers new options with better coverage and tax credits that might help you bring down the cost.

be so if you received one of these letters, i'd encourage you to take a look at marketplace. even if the web site isn't working as smoothly as it should be for everybody yet, the plan comparison tool that lets you browse cost comparison plans near you is working just fine. now, this fix won't solve every problem for every person, but it's going to help a lot of people. doing more will require work with congress. and i've said from the beginning i'm willing to work with democrats and republicans to fix problems as they a arise. it is an example of what i was talking about. we can always make this law work better. it is important to understand, though, that the old individual market was not working well. and it's important that we don't pretend that somehow that's a place worth going back to. too often it works fine as long as you stay healthy, it doesn't work well when you're sick.

so year after year americans were routinely exposed to financial ruin or denied coverage due to minor pre-existing conditions or dropped from coverage altogether even if they paid their premiums on time. that's one of the reasons we pursued this reform in the first place x. that's why i will not accept proposals that are just another brazen attempt to undermine or repeal the overall law and drag us back into a broken system. we will continue to make the case even to folks who choose to keep tear own plans that -- their own plans that they should shop around in the new marketplace because there's a good chance they'll be able to buy better insurance at lower costs. so we're going to do everything we can to help the americans who have received these cancellation notices, but i also want everybody to remember there are still 40 million americans who don't have health insurance at all. i'm not going to walk away from 40 million people who have the chance to get health insurance for the first time, and i'm not going to walk away from something that has helped the

cost of health care grow at its slowest rate in 50 years. so we're at the opening weeks of the project to build a better health care system for everybody. a system that will offer real financial security and peace of mind to millions of americans. it is a complex process, there are all kinds of challenges. i'm sure there will be additional challenges that come up. and it's im honest and straightforward in terms when we come up with a problem with these reforms and these laws that we address them. but we've got to move forward on it took a hundred years for us to even get to the point where we could start talking about and implementing a law to pick sure everybody got health insurance. to make sure everybody got health insurance. and my pledge to the american people is we're going to solve the problems that are there, we're going to get it right, and the affordable care act is going to work for the american people. so with that, i'm going to take

your questions, and i'm going to start with julie pace of ap. >> thank you, mr. president. the combination of the -- [inaudible] problems and the concerns over the policy cancellations has sparked a lot of worry within your own party, and polls also show you're taking some hits on both your overall job approval rating and also factors like trust and honesty. >> right. >> do now yell as though the flaw -- feel as though it's led to a breach in public trust in government, and if so, how do you plan to resolve that? >> there is no doubt that people are frustrated. we just came out of a shutdown, and the possibility that for the first time in over 200 years we wouldn't pay our bills. and people breathed a sigh of relief when that finally got done, and the next thing they know is that the president's health care reform can't get web site to work. and that there's these other problems with respect to cancellation notices. and, you know, i understand why

folks are frustrated. i would be too. because sometimes, you know, people look at what's taking place in washington, and they say not enough is getting done that helps me with my life. and, you know, regardless of what congress does, ultimately, i'm the president of the united states, and they expect me to do something about it. so in terms of how i intend to approach it, i'm just going to keep on working as hard as i can around the priorities that the american people care about. and i think it's legitimate for them to expect me to have to win back some credibility on this health care law in particular and and on a whole range of these issues in general. and, you know, that's on me. i mean, we fumbled the rollout on this health care law. there are a whole bunch of things about it that are working

really well which people didn't notice, all right? because they weren't controversial. so making sure kids could stay on their parents' plans until they're up through the age of 25. there were a whole bunch of stuff that we did well over the first three years, but we always knew that these marketplaces creating a place where people can shop and through competition get a better deal for the health insurance that their families need, we always knew that was going to be complicated, and everybody was going to be paying a lot of attention to it. and we should have done a better job getting that right on day one. not on day 28 or on day 40. i am confident that by the time we look back on this next year, that people are going to say

this is working well, and it's helping a lot of people. but my intention in terms of winning back the american people is just to work as hard as i can. identify the problems we've got, make sure we're fixing them whether it is a web site, whether it is making sure folks who got these cancellation notices get help. we're just going to keep on chipping away at this until the job is done. major garrett. >> thank you, mr. president. you said while the law was being debated if you like your plan, you can keep it. you said after the law was implemented or signed, if you liked your plan, you can keep it. americans believed you, sir, when you said that to them over and over. >> that's right. >> do you not believe, sir, the american people believe a deeper, more transparent accountability from you as to why you said that over and over when your own statistics alerted your policy staff -- i presume

you -- to the fact that millions of americans would, in fact, probably fall into the very gap you're trying to administratively fix right now? that's one question. second question -- [laughter] you were informed or several people if this building were informed that it was failing the most basic tests internally, and yet a decision was made to launch the web site on october 1st. did you make that, and if so, do you regret that? >> okay. on the web site i was not informed directly that the web site would not be working the way it was supposed to. had i been informed, i wouldn't be going out saying, boy, this is going to be great, you know? i'm accused of a lot of things, but i don't think i'm stupid enough to go around saying this is going to be like shopping on amazon or travelocity a week before the web site opens if i thought that it wasn't going to work. so, clearly, we -- and i -- did not have enough awareness about

the problems in the web site even a week into it the thinking was that these were some glitches that would be fixed with patches as opposed to some broader systemic problems that took much longer to fix and we're still working on them. so, you know, that doesn't excuse the fact they just don't work, but i think it's fair to say, that, no, garrett -- major, we would not have rolled out something knowing very well that it wasn't going to work the way it was supposed to given all the scrutiny that we knew was going to be on the web site. with respect to the pledge i made that if you like your plan, you can keep it, i think, you know, and i've said in interviews that there is no doubt that the way i put that forward unequivocally ended up not being accurate. it was not because of my intention not to deliver on that commitment and that promise.

we put a grandfather clause into the law, but it was insufficient. keep in mind that the individual market accounts for 5% of the population. so when i said you can keep your health care, you know, i'm looking at folks who have got employer-based health care, i'm looking at folks who have got medicare and medicaid, and that accounts for the vast majority of americans. and then for people who don't have any health insurance at all, obviously, that didn't apply. my commitment to them was you're going to be able to get affordable health care for the first time. you have an individual market that accounts for about 5% of the population, and our working assumption was -- my working assumption was that the majority of those folks would find better policies at lower costs or the same costs in the marketplaces

and that the universe of folks who potential arely would not -- potentially would not find a better deal in the marketplaces, the grandfather clause would work sufficiently for them. and it didn't. and, again, that's on us. which is why we're -- that's on me. and that's why i'm trying to fix it. and as i've said earlier, i guess last week and i will repeat, that's something i deeply regret, because it's scary getting a cancellation notice. now, it is important to understand that out of that population typically there is condition instant churn in that -- constant churn in that market. this market is not very stable and reliable for people. so people have a lot of complaints when they're in that marketplace. as long as you're healthy, things seem to be going pretty good. and so a lot of people think i've got pretty good insurance

until they get sick, and then suddenly they look at the fine print, and heavy got a $50,000 out-of-pocket expense that they can't pay. we know that on average over the last decade each year premiums in that individual market would go up an average of 15% a year. i know that because when we were talking about health care reform, one of the complaints was i bought health care in the individual market, and i just got a notice from the insurer, they dropped me after i had an illness, or my premiums skyrocketed by 20 or 30%, why aren't we doing something about this? so part of what our goal has been is to make sure that that individual market is stable and fair and has the kind of consumer protections that make sure the people don't get a rude surprise when they need health insurance. but if you just got a cancellation notice and so far you're thinking my prices are pretty good, you haven't been

sick and it fits your budget and now you get this notice, you're going to be worried about it. and if the insurer's saying the reason you're getting this notice is because of the affordable care act, then you're going to be understandably aggravated about it. now, for a big portion of those people the truth is they might have gotten a notice saying we're jacking up your rates by 30%. they might have said from here on out we're not going to cover x, y and z illnesses. we're changing the -- because these were all 12 month policies. the insurance companies were under no obligation to renew the exact same policies that you had before. but, look, one of the things i understood when we decided to reform the health insurance market, part of the reason why it hasn't been done before and it's very difficult to do is that anything that's going on

that's tough in the health care market, um, if you initiated a reform, can be attributed to your law. and so what we want to do is be able to say to these folks, you know what? the affordable care act is not going to be the reason why insurers have to cancel your plan. now, what folks may find is the insurance companies may still come back and say we want to charge you 20% more than we did last year, or we're not going to cover prescription drugs now. but that will, that's in the nature of the market that existed earlier. >> did you decide, sir, that the simple declaration was something the american people could handle but this nuanced stance that you just gave now was something they couldn't handle, and you didn't trust the american people with the fuller truth? >> no. i think as i said earlier, major, my expectation was that for 98% of the american people either it genuinely wouldn't

change at all, or they'd be pleasantly surprised with the options in the marketplace and that the grandfather clause would cover the rest. that proved not to be the case. and that's on me. and the american people -- those who got cancellation notices -- do deserve and have received an apology from me. but they don't want words. what they want is whether we can make sure that they are in a better place and that we meet that commitment. and by the way, i think it's very important for me to note that, you know, there are a whole bunch of folks up in congress and others who made this statement, and they were entirely sincere about it, and the fact that you've got this percentage of people who have had this, you know, impact, i want them to know that, you know, their senator or congressman, they were making representations based on what

with i told them and what this white house and our, you know, administrative staff told them. and so it's not on them, it's on us. but it is something that we intend to fix. good. steve collison. >> do you have reason to believe that iran would walk away from nuclear talks if congress draws up new sanctions, and would a diplomatic breakdown at this stage leave you no option but military action? and how do you respond to your critics on the hill who say it was only tough sanctions who got iran to the table, only tougher sanctions will make them capitulate? >> let me make a couple of points. number one, i've said before and i will repeat we do not want iran having nuclear weapons. and it would be not only dangerous to us and our allies, but it would be destabilizing to the entire region and could trigger a nuclear arms race that would make life much more

dangerous for all of us. so our policy is iran cannot have nuclear weapons, and i'm leaving all options on the table to make sure that we meet that goal. point number two, the reason we've got such vigorous sanctions is because i ask my administration -- i and my administration put into place when i came into office the international structure to have the most effective sanctions ever. and so i think it's fair to say that i know a little bit about sanctions since we set 'em up and made sure that we mobilized the entire international community so that there weren't a lot of loopholes, and they really had bite. and the intention in setting up those sanctions always was to bring the iranians to the table so that we could resolve this issue peacefully. be because that is my preference -- because that is my preference. that's my preference because any

armed conflict has costs to it. but it's also my preference because the best way to assure that a country does not have nuclear weapons is that they are making a decision not to have nuclear weapons, and we're in a position to verify that they don't have nuclear weapons. so as a consequence of the sanctions that we put in place -- and i appreciate all the help, bipartisan help that we received there congress in making that happen -- iran's economy has been crippled, they had a negative 5% growth rate last year, their currency plummeted, they're having significant problems in just the day-to-day economy on the ground in iran. and president rue hand made a decision a -- rouhani made a decision that he was prepared to come and have a conversation with the international community about what they could do to solve this problem with us.

we've now had a series of conversations, and it has never been realistic that we would resolve the entire problem all at once. what we have done is seen the possibility of an agreement in which iran would halt advances on its program, that it would dilute some of the highly-enriched uranium that makes it easier for them to potentially produce a weapon, that they are subjecting themselves to much more vigorous inspections so that we know exactly what they're doing at all their various facilities, and that that would then provide time and space for us to test over a certain period of months whether or not they are prepared to actually resolve this issue to the satisfaction of the

international community. making us confident that, in fact, they're not pursuing a nuclear weapons program. in return, the basic structure of what's been talked about -- although not completed -- is that we would provide very modest relief at the margins of the sanctions that we've set up. but importantly, we would leave in place the core sanctions that are most effective and have most impact on the iranian economy; specifically, oil sanctions and sanctions with respect to banks and financing. and what that gives us is the opportunity to test how serious are they, but it also gives us an assurance that if it turns out six months there be now that they're not -- if it turns out

they're not serious, we can crank, we can dial those sanctions back up. so my message to congress has been that let's see if this short-term, phase one deal can be completed to our satisfaction where we're absolutely certain that wile we're talking with the -- wile we're talking with the iranians, they're not busy advancing their program, we can buy some additional months in terms of their breakout capacity. let's test how willing they are to actually resolve this diplomatically and peacefully. we will have loif at the end of the day it turns out that they are not prepared to provide the international community the hard proof and assurances necessary for us to know that they're not pursuing a nuclear weapon. and if that turns out to be the case, then not only is our

entire sanctions infrastructure still in place, not only are they still losing money from the fact that they can't sell their oil and get revenue from their oil as easily even throughout these talks, but other options remain. but what i've said to the members of congress is that if, in fact, we're serious about trying to resolve this diplomatically because to matter how good our military is, military options are always messy, are always difficult, always have unintended consequences. and in this situation are never complete in terms of making us certain that they don't then go out and pursue even more vigorously nuclear weapons in the future. if we're serious about pursuing diplomacy, ten there's no need for -- then there's no need for

us to add new sanctions on top of the sanctions that are already very effective and that brought them to the table in the first place. now, if it turns out they can't deliver, they can't come to the table in a serious way and get this issue resolved, the sanctions can be ramped back up, and we've got that, we've got that option. roger -- [inaudible] roger, it's his birthday, by the way. so that's not the reason you got a question, but i thought it was important to note that. happy birthday. >> thank you, mr. president. back to health care. can you guarantee for the american people that the health care web site is going to be fully operational for all people -- not just the vast majority -- by november 30? and second, more broadly, this is your signature domestic piece of legislation. >> right. >> you hear criticism on the hill that you and your white

house team are too influenced. is that how this mess came to be? >> well, you know, i think there's going to be a lot of, there's going to be a lot of evaluation of how we got to this point. and i'm concern i assure you that i've been asking a lot of questions about that. the truth is that this is, number one, very complicated. the web site itself is doing a lot of stuff. there aren't a lot of web sites out this that have to -- out there that have to help people compare their possible insurance options, verify income to find out what kind of tax credits they might get, communicate with those insurance companies so that they can purchase, make sure that all of it's verified,

right? so there's just a bunch of pieces to it that paid it challenging. that made it challenging. and you combine that with the fact that the federal government does a lot of things really well, one of the things it does not do well is information technology procurement. you know, this is kind of a systematic problem that we have across the board. and, you know, it is not surprising then that there were going to be some problems. now, i think we have to ask ourself toes some hard questions inside -- ourselves some hard questions inside the white house as opposed to why we didn't see more of these problems coming earlier on, a, so we could set expectations, b, so that we could look for different ways for people to end up applying. so, you know, ultimately, you're right. this is something that's really important to me, and it's really important the millions of americans who have been waiting for a really long time to try to

get health care because they don't have it. and, you know, i am very frustrated, but i'm also somebody who if i fumbled the ball, you know, i'm going to wait until i get the next play, and then i'm going to try to run as hard as i can and do right by the team. so, you know, ultimately, i'm the head of this team. we did fumble the ball on it, and what i'm going to do is make sure that we get it fixed. in terms of what happens on november 30th or december 1st, i think it's fair to say that the improvement will be marked and noticeable. the web site will work much better on november 30th, december 1st than it worked, certainly, on october 1st. that's a pretty low bar. it'll be working a lot better than it is, it was last week,

and it will be working better than it was this week. which means that the majority of people who go to the web site will see a web site that is working the way it's supposed to. i think it is not possible for me to guarantee that 100% of the people 100% of the time going on this web site will have a perfectly seamless, smooth experience. we're going to have to continue to improve it even after november 30th, december 1st. but the majority of people who use it will be able to see it operate the way it was suppose toed to. one thing -- supposed to. one thing we've discovered, though, that i think is worth noting, a lot of focus has been on the web site and the technology. and that's partly because that's how we initially identified it, you know? these are glitches. what we're discovering is that

part of the problem has been technology, hardware and software, and that's being upgraded. but even if the we get the hardware and software working exactly the way it's supposed to with relatively minor glitches, what we're also discovering is that insurance is complicated to buy. and another mistake that we made, i think, was underestimating the difficulties of people purchasing insurance online and shopping for a lot of options with a lot of costs and a lot of different benefits and plans and somehow expecting that that would be very smooth, and then they've also got to try to a apply for tax credits on the web site. so what we're doing even as we're trying to solve the technical problems is also what

can we do to make the application a little bit simpler. what can we do to make it in english as opposed to bureaucratese? are there steps that we can skip while still getting the core information that a people need? and part of what we're realizing is that there are going to be a certain portion of people who are just going to need more help and more hand holding in the application process. and so, so i guess part of the continuous improvement that i'm looking at is not just a technical issue, it's also can we streamline the application process, what are we doing to give people more assistance in the application process, you know, how do the call centers and the people who are helping folks in person, how are they trained so that things can go

more smoothly? because the bottom line, ultimately, is i just want people to know what their options are in a clear way. and, you know, buying health insurance is never going to to be like buying a song on itunes. it's just a push more complicated transaction. but i think we can continue to make it better. all of which is to say that on december 1st, november 30th it will be a lot better. but there will still be some problems. some of those will not be because of technological problems -- although i'm sure that there will still be some glitches that have to be smoothed out -- some of it's going to be how are we making in this application process more user friendly for folks? and, you know, one good example of this, by the way, just to use an analogy, when we came into

office, we heard a lot of complaints about the financial aid forms that families have to fill out to get federal financial aid. and i actually remember applying for some of that stuff and remember how difficult and confusing it was, and arne duncan over at education worked with a team to see what we could do to simplify it, and it made a big difference. and that's part of the process that we've got to go through and, in fact, you know, if we can get some focus groups and we it down with actual users and see, you know, how well is this working, what would improve it, what part of it didn't you understand, that all, i think, is part of what we're going to be working on in the weeks ahead. >> what about the insularity criticism that you hear? >> you know, i, i've got to say i meet with an awful lot of folks, and i talk to an awful lot of folks every day, and i have lunches with ceos and i.t.

venture capitalists and labor leaders and, you know, pretty much folks from all walks of life on a whole bunch of topics. and if you looked at my schedule on any given day, we're interacting with a well lot of people. with a whole lot of people. and i think it's fair to say that we have a pretty good track record of working with folks on technology and i.t. from our campaign where both in 2008 and 2012 we did a pretty darn good job on that. so it's not that, you know, the idea that somehow we didn't have access or were interested in people's, people's ideas, i think, isn't accurate. what is true is that, as i said before, our i.t. systems, how we purchase technology in the federal government is cumbersome, complicated and

outdated. and so this isn't a situation where on my campaign i could simply say who are the best folks out there, let's get 'em around a table, let's figure out what we're doing, and we're just going to continue to improve it and refine it and work on our goals. if you're doing it at the federal government level, you know, you're going through 40 pages of specs and this and that and the other, and there are all kinds of laws involved, and it makes it more difficult. it's part of the reason why chronically federal i.t. programs are overbudget, behind schedule. and one of the, you know, when i do some monday morning quarterbacking on myself, one of the things that i do recognize is since i know that the federal government has not been good at this stuff in the past, two years ago as we were thinking about this, you know, we might have done more to make sure that we were breaking the mold on how we were going to be setting this

up. but that doesn't help us now. we've got to move forward. jeff mason. >> thank you, mr. president. today's fix that you just announced leaves it up to state insurance commissioners and insurance companies to ultimately decide whether to allow those policies to to be renewed for a year. how confident are you that they will do that? and secondly, how concerned are you that this rollout may hurt democrats' chances in next year's midterm elections and your ability to advance other priorities such as immigration reform? >> on the first question, traditionally state insurance commissioners make decisions about what plans can be or cannot be sold, how they interact with insurers. what we're essentially saying is the affordable care act is not going to be the factor in what happens with folks in the individual market. and my guess is right away you're going to see a number of

state insurance commissioners exercise it. part of the challenge is the individual markets are different in different states. there are some states that have individual insurance markets that already have almost all the consumer protections that the affordable care act does. they match up pretty good can. it's not some big jump for folks to move into the marketplace. in others they're pretty low standards, so you can sell pretty substandard plans in those markets, and that's where people might see a bigger jump in their premiums. so i think there's going to be some state-by-state evaluation on how this is handled. but the key point is that it allows us to be able to say to the folks who receive these notices, look, you know, i, the president of the united states, and the insurance model, the

affordable care act, is not going to be getting in the way of you shopping in the individual market that you used to have. as i said, there are still going to be some folks who other time, i think, are going to find that the marketplaces are better. one way i describe in the to -- i met with a group of senators when this issue first came up, and it's not a perfect analogy, but, you know, we made a decision as a society that every car has to have a seat belt or air bags. and so you pass a regulation. there's some additional costs, particularly at the start of increasing the safety and protections, but we make a decision as a society that the costs are outweighed by the benefits of all the lives that are saved. so what we're saying now is if you're buying a new car, you've

got to have a seat belt. well, the problem with the grandfather clause that we put in place is it's almost like we said to folks you've got to buy a new car even if you can't afford be it right now. afford it right now. and sooner or later folks are going to start trading in their old cars. but, you know, we don't need -- if their life circumstance is such where for now at least they want to keep the old car even if the new car is better be, we should be be able to give them that option, and that's what we want to do. and, by the way, that's what we should have been able to do in drafting the rules in the first place. so again, you know, these are two fumbles on something that -- on a big game which -- but the game's not over. with respect to the politics of it, you know, i'll let you guys

do a lot of the work on projecting what this means for various political scenarios. there is no doubt that our failure to roll out the aca smoothly has put a burden on democrats whether they're running or not. because they stood up and supported this effort through thick and thin. and, you know, i feel deeply responsible for making it harder for them rather than easier for them to continue to promote the core values that i think led them to support this thing in the first place which is in this country as wealthy as we are,

everybody should be able to have the security of affordable health health care. and that's why i feel so strongly about fixing it. my first and foremost obligation is to the american people to make sure that they can get what's there if we can just get the darn web site working and smooth in the thing out which is plans that are affordable and allow them to take advantage of tax credits and give them a better deal. but i also do feel an obligation to everybody out there who supported this effort. you know, when we don't do a good job on the rollout, we're letting them down. and, you know, i don't, i don't like doing that. so my commitment to them is we're going to just keep on doing better every get it done. and in terms of the impact on me, i think to some extent i

addressed it when i talked to julie, you know, there are going to be ups and downs during the course of my presidency. and, you know, i think i said early on when i was running i am not a perfect man, and i will not be a perfect president. but i'll wake up every single day working as hard as i can on behalf of americans out there from every walk of life who are working hard, meeting their responsibilities. but sometimes they're struggling because the way the system works isn't giving them a fair shot. and that pledge i haven't broken. that commitment, that promise continues to be, continues to hold. the promise that i wouldn't be perfect, number one, but also the promise that as long as i've got the honor of having this office, i'm just going to work as hard as i can to make things

better for folks. and what that means specifically in this health care arena is we can't go back to the status quo. i mean, right now everybody is properly focused on us not doing a good job on the rollout. and that's legitimate, and i get it. there have been times where i thought we were, got, you know, slapped around a little bit unjustly. this one's deserved, right? it's on us. but we can't lose sight of the fact that the status quo before the affordable care act was not working at all. if the health care system had been working fine and everybody had high quality health insurance at affordable prices, i wouldn't have made it a priority. we wouldn't have been fighting this hard to get it done. which is why when i see sometimes folks up on capitol

hill and republicans in particular who have been suggesting, you know, repeal, repeal, let's get rid of this thing, i keep on asking what is it that you want to do? are you suggesting that the status quo was working? because with it wasn't, and everybody knows it. it wasn't working in the individual market, and it certainly wasn't working for the 41 million people who didn't have health insurance. and so what we did was we chose a path that was the least disruptive to try to finally make sure that health care treated in this country like it is in every other advanced country, that it's not some privilege that just a certain portion of people can have, but it's something that everybody has some confidence about. and, you know, we didn't go far left and choose an approach that would have been much more disruptive, we didn't adopt some more conservative proposals that

would have been much more disruptive, we tried to choose a way that built off the existing system. but it is complicated, it is hard, but i make no apologies for us taking this on. because somebody sooner or later had to do it. i do make apologies for not having executed better over the last several months. >> do you think that execution and the flaws in the rollout will affect your ability to do other things like immigration reform, another policy -- >> well, look, if it comes to immigration reform, you know, there is no reason for us not to do immigration reform. and we already got strong bipartisan support for immigration reform out of the senate. you've got -- i met with a number of traditionally very conservative clergy who are deeply committed to immigration reform.

we've got the business community entirely behind immigration reform. so you've got a bunch of constituencies that have traditionally much more, have leaned much more heavily towards republicans who are behind this. so if people are looking for an excuse not to do the right thing on immigration reform, they can always find an excuse. you know, we've run out of time, or, you know, this is hard or, you know, the list goes on and on. but my working assumption is people should want to do the right thing, and when you've got an issue that would strengthen borders, make sure that the legal immigration system works the way it's supposed to, that would go after employers who are doing the wrong thing when it comes to hiring undocumented workers and would allow folks who are here illegally to get right with the law and pay a fine and learn english and get to the back of the line, but, you know, ultimately join fully

our american community, when you've got a law that makes sense, you shouldn't be looking for an excuse not to do it. and i'm going to keep on pushing to make sure it gets done. am i going to have to do some work to rebuild confidence around some of our initiatives? yeah. but part of this job is the things that go right you guys aren't going to write about, the things that go wrong get prominent attention. that's how it's always been. that's not unique to me as president. and i'm up to the challenge. we're going to get this done, all right? thank you, everybody. jon: the president there had a lengthy news conference offering people some hope that the obamacare rollout problems are going to be fixed, and i guess the headline is if you like your health care plan -- i can't say that, if you like your health care plan, you can keep it assuming your health care provider, the insurance company, wants to let you keep it, wants

to go back to the plan that you had before. that's what the president has been offering. jenna: and that's a big if. if also, one of the other variables is, let's say your insurance company decides, okay, you can go back, and you can get the plan that we canceled, there's nothing -- and we heard this in the press briefing -- to really secure the price that you had for that insurance plan, and that's one of the big questions as well, what about price, affordability of your health care? jerry simes has been standing by with us, jerry, thank you so much for taking the time just to sit by as the president talked and covered quite a bit of different topics. what is the big takeaway here? how exactly does this administrative fix work? >> well, first of all, i think it was a pretty extraordinary day for the president. that was a lot of, that was a lot of apologizing in one fell swoop. could not have been ease i for him. i think, as you suggested, he's

made it possible for insurance companies to continue offering plans that don't really meet the standards of the affordable care act. that does not guarantee that insurance companies will do that or, and there's another step in here, state insurance commissioners have to approve the plans that are offered in their state. so they would have to go back and say, yes, we recertify some of these plans -- jenna: and, jerry, sorry to interrupt you, but what about the timeline for something like that? we're neary to the end of the year. -- nearly to the end of the year. can that be done before the end of 2013? >> i think it can. the problem for the white house is whether it will happen or not is kind of out of their hands. that requires cooperation from insurance companies, from state insurance commissioners, and it doesn't guarantee that people who have already lost their policies will have them resurrected. it probably does help people who are on that bubble with insurance companies who might have thought canceling their -- thought about canceling their policies. jenna: you've been paying attention to the legislation on capitol hill. these are elected officials, we've elected them to represent

us, this is an administrative fix. where exactly does congress come in here, and what about that legislation now? >> i think that's an important point. one of the reasons, undoubtedly, the president moved today was trying to prevent congress doing this legislatively. once you start relegislating the whole act, then a lot of things can happen that the white house is not interested in seeing. so one of the things i think the president was about today was providing an administrative fix that will prevent congress -- and at least democrats in congress -- from thinking they have to vote on something that makes the change the president just did administratively. that means tomorrow republicans are going to try to pass a bill that guarantees people can keep their insurance policies, some democrats were drifting towards that or similar legislation in the senate. the president would like to stop that process in its tracks. we'll have to see if that works or not. jon: he said quite clearly, jerry, that the status quo wasn't working, that is the

private insurance market before the affordable care act. i recall reading surveys that said something like 75% of americans were pretty happy with the insurance they had. now, that does leave some people, you know, uncovered or having less than desirable coverage, but that's a far cry from saying that it was a broken market as the president described it. >> well, yeah. no, it's true in both ways here. a lot of the conversation we're having now about who's unhappy now and who was unhappy before about people who were sort of further out on the margins of the health care system. if you, like a lot of us, have a pretty good employer-provided health insurance plan, a, you were probably happy with that and that's what those polls indicated and, b, yes, indeed, you could keep that. that's all true. the problem is with people who aren't in that comfortable spot, people for whom the market wasn't working before. they're the ones who feel like they've gotten the short end of the stick now, they're even more unhappy. it is not a meaj that applies to a lot of people and probably the majority of people in the marketplace then or now, but

those aren't the people who are on the line right now. the people who are on the line are those who are in the margins of the system, and that's the conversation. jenna: jerry, i know you did some interesting analysis on what we're seeing as people are turning away from both the democrats and republicans and moving towards a place in the center that you say is a very provocative one, so i encourage our viewers to check out your column and have you back. of it's fitting today but we, of course, had to move with the news. >> sure, understood. jenna: appreciate it very much. it's a big story, and we'll continue to follow it on fox news, but one of the ways to bring these stories together is although we have seen the poll numbers for the president and democrats go down, that doesn't mean the poll numbers for the republicans have gone up, so it's a bigger question on the impact this legislation has not only on the health care market, but just on the ability for everyone. jon: the president's job approval ratings are at the lowest they have been, but they are still far ahead of the congress as a whole.

so to maybe -- maybe he's doing something better than the congress is. jenna: we do know that he watches football. the term "fumble" has come up quite a bit. jon: it's all a fumble. and thank you for joining us. hold on to the ball. jenna: america's news headquarters is next. is next. >> thank you. we begin with a fox news alert and this following enormous pressure from republicans and democrats after mill yens of americans were sent cancellation. welcome to hq, i am alisyn camerota. >> and i am bill hemmer. the president announced that insurance companies have the option for a year to keep offering consumers plans that would otherwise be cancelled. but the president admitted not everything has gone according to plan. >> my working assumption was