gl blaming the anti-vaccine movement. anything could happen in the november midterm elections. it's possible nothing could happen. we'll sort that out when we spin. >> plus, in the news cycle, biden is running for higher office. how is that for a tease? they're not interested in any kind of military confrontation with us. understanding that our conventional forces are significantly superior to the russians. we don't need a war. what we do need is a recognition that countries like ukraine can have relationships with a whole range of their neighbors, and it is not up to anybody, whether it's russia or the united states or anybody else, to make decisions for them.

>> president obama breaks his silence on the ukraine crisis, while russian president putin insists he has the right to use force across the border. an area he calls the new russia. now, a russian website said the ousted ukrainian president who has been living in russia since he was deposed will return to his stronghold in eastern ukraine this weekend. secretary of state john kerry is headed back to the u.s. after talks with ukraine. what is next for the east/west tensions? no question the crisis is escalating further. a brigade that is now defected, the pro russian side raises serious questions about kiev's control over its own troops. here in the u.s., our nato ally poland is asking for a u.s. and nato buildup on the border of ukraine. what a mess. >> an attack against all members of nato. the united states is fully committed to meeting its article

5 responsibilities. this is a critical time for the nato alliance. and for the polish-u.s. bilateral relationship. >> we start with jake sherman, congressional reporter at politico, and d'stephen blank, currently senior fellow at the american foreign policy counci., the talks in geneva have come and gone. it seems very little came out of them. we've seen further escalation. what does this mean for putin and what is next for him? >> i think we're going to see that he's going to continue pushing the attempt to undermine the foundations of ukraine's statehood through the incitement of separatism and unrest in eastern ukraine. i don't think he believes he's seen enough resistance on anybody's part to warrant him stopping. i would imagine the crisis will continue, and sending mr. yanukovych back to ukraine is a

perfect example of how he could continue to escalate. >> jake, some house members are going to kiev next week. can they do anything to actually move the ball forward? >> one of the things they're trying to do is say putin is a thug and the u.s. needs to provide export gas to ukraine to kind of weaken russia, weaken the economic conditions over there. that's something that has found some resistance. but what we really see is congress asserting its power, showing there's an alternative -- not necessarily an alternative, but definitely an alternative voice to president obama. but whether we will see actual action on releasing this gas to ukraine is far from certain, i think is fair to say. >> dr. blank, let me read you something from richard hass on these matters. putin he writes, wants to restore russia to what he regards as its rightful place in the world. he's genuinely angry over the humiliation suffered since the

end of the cold war. and he clearly recognizes that the restoration of russia's former greatness is a goal shared by many of his countrymen, foreign policy thus can make for good domestic policy. if russia restores its former greatness at the price of being separated from the rest of the world, isn't that a heavy price to pay? >> well, it is a heavy price to pay, but it's not the only price. because the only way russia can restore its empire is by maintaining a state of war with all of its neighbors, and attempting to diminish their sovereignty. it's an unacceptable price. it's an unacceptable price for russia, because at the end of the day the russian people cannot afford to sustain it. it would be a dangerous mirage. >> you speak about price. jake, something a lot of members of congress talked about is increasing the price on russia for this type of behavior, without, of course, going to war, which we have been reporting that the president is saying they're not going to do.

"the new york times" has a piece about the russian economy sputtering. what is the mood in washington on how russia is reacting here and whether more can be done to pressure them diplomatically and economically? >> i think congress will do whatever it can to sanction russia. we've already seen that john boehner, the house speaker, is sanctioned in russia. i don't think there's really any bounds to what congress will do in trying to punish moscow. but if the administration steps in and tells them to pull back, which we haven't seen yet, that could stop it. but really, majority leader eric cantor and john boehner on the house side have been forceful in their sanctions that they've passed. ed royce has said when he returns from ukraine, from this long trip he's doing with a number of members of congress, he'll promote at least a bill to export more gas without government approval. so congress is not showing any restraint whether they should or

not is another issue, but they're not showing any restraint in legislation. >> dr. blank, we've seen potentially very troubling news coming out of eastern ukraine with regard to their jewish population. jews in one eastern ukrainian city were asked to register with the pro-russia militants there. and identify their assets. secretary of state john kerry spoke about this report today. >> in the year 2014, after all of the miles traveled and all of the journey of history, this is not just intolerable, it's grotesque. it is beyond unacceptable. >> this is some pretty scary stuff. >> absolutely. and it is, as the secretary said, beyond unacceptable. it's also ironic, because the russia government's propaganda has been screaming is that ukraine is being ruled by

anti-semitic thugs. moscow itself is not averse to using that card in the domestic politics. if you read the russian media, they love to speculate that the reformers, or the opposition to putin are themselves jewish in order to stoke anti-semitism. >> and jake, how is the politics of this playing at the white house? >> this is a very tough issue. you see -- i guess the president has a break here, because congress is out of session for two weeks. so the back-and-forth between republicans and democrats has died down a little bit. but listen, i think on chill, and among a lot of people in washington, opponents of the president, even some supporters of the president think putin as the guest said earlier is walking on the united states. i expect we'll hear more and more of this when congress gets back into session. and it's fascinating, in addition to ukraine, you also have eric cantor and paul ryan doing a trip to asia with

biden -- or the president in asia, and biden in ukraine. you have this dual programming on foreign policy. which is quite stunning, and very fascinating. >> stephen, i want to speak a little bit about the capacity issues here. we talk a lot of foreign policy. about what people want to do. they talk about putin's attitude and whether he's strong, and obama. what we've seen in the last couple of days in ukraine, we've seen capacity with the military. i want to put up on the screen "the new york times" reporting on this, the challenge they faced as they were trying to basically deal with these militants in this region that are well armed, accompanied by, quote, bold, local supporters, including unarmed civilians, and women who mingle among the armed men. you have experience here. walk us through the issues with the ukrainian military that is, a, isn't very strong conventionally, and b, is dealing with a very challenging, unconventional environment there. >> first of all, you have real

problems with command and control. they have several ministers of defense and heads of security structures also in the month and a half that they've been in power. so there's no strong hand at the top directing policy. second, they never had the training to deal with this kind of contingency. these kinds of contingencies require a great deal of specialized training and disciplined troops who do not lose their heads, and either start shooting wildly into a crowd and surrender and run away, which apparently what happened in this case. it speaks to the problems that they have with the military. and it looks to the world like they aren't able to govern themselves. and that's, of course, grist for putin's mill. but this is an active aggression and cold-blooded war. >> stephen blank, jake sherman, thank you so much for your analysis. up next, a political hypothetical with very real

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we turn to news, the midterm election season is soon upon us. >> hundreds of millions will be spent, hours upon hours of cable news and other news will be spent talking about it, of course. this is what we want to ask you today, what if it doesn't mean anything? the best case for the democrats or the gop will keep control of the house and have a smaller majority in the senate. at worst for the republicans, they maintain control of the house but would still probably be the senate minority. if the gridlock is the best and

worst case scenario here, what is all the talk about for all these midterms? is it just to tee up a lot of 016 drama? that's where we start on the spin today. hey, spinners. >> hey, buddy. >> here we are at the table. >> we missed you. glad to have you back. >> it makes a difference. >> you had a strong spin on subway graffiti yesterday. >> i hear the sarcasm in your voice. it was a strong spin. what are you saying? are you anti-graffiti? >> go ahead. >> i love a good flashback spin. i want to talk about today. this whole idea that we don't have competitive midterm elections, we just mentioned when you look at the numbers, there's a good chance after all this money and campaigning there's not going to be a big change. it goes back to the fact that incumbents -- >> i want to hold you one second. we're expecting the president in the briefing room here shortly. so we'll go to that obviously when he comes down.

go ahead with what you were saying. >> i want to put one other thing up on the screen which is a chart of incumbency reelection. what you see here is basically what you already suspected. incumbents often are reelected, usually at the tune of over 80%. what you see is, with variation, it is now up to much closer to 100%. we're living through the highest incumbent reelection rate in history. >> i feel better about losing my race now. finally. >> this goes to a bumnch of things. there's a thing that goes to a famous jay-z line. >> i knew it would head to jay-z. >> if money talks, the whole world's going to hear me out. as we look at the midterms, money is talking more loudly than ever. even though you have historically low approval of congress, it is true there may not be a lot of seats changing

hands, that may mean because the incumbents have the gerrymandering and other tools to prevent there being competitive elections. >> i'm glad we're getting to a very reasonable, thoughtful discussion in 2014, because this thing has made a lot of people on television say really stupid things. look at this idiot here. roll that. any day now. >> is it you, toure? >> wait for it. >> there he is. >> what we have is one particular person who's on television saying, there's no chance of the citizen playing in 2014. >> it really was you. >> it really was me. >> that's great. >> now we have it. >> neither of these things -- >> it is in play. >> no, the senate -- >> the senate's in play. it will continue to be blue. there is no chance -- there's no chance --

>> you're fooling yourself if you think that the senate could not flip. >> so, i was fooling myself. there is a chance, a good chance, a very strong chance a the this point the senate could turn red. but i have not lost hope yet, right? i think once again, the women could save us. michelle nunn is raising a lot of money in georgia. allison grimes is leading, or close to miss mcconnell in kentucky, depending which poll you read. kay hagan may end up running against a tea party challenger. that is the one person in north carolina who she could probably beat. so -- >> i think i'll jump in here. the president is expected to come out to the white house briefing room. we have kristen welker out at the white house. what do we know the president is expected to say here, impromptu kind of entrance into the press briefing room any minute? >> reporter: he does this from time to time. the white house won't say what president obama will talk about. but we know that these comments

are coming on the heels of a meeting that he's had with state insurance commissioners, and according to a source with whom i spoke familiar with that conversation, president obama told the insurance commissioners that at this point, 35% of those who have enrolled in health insurance are under the age of 35. why is that significant? it's significant because insurance commissioners, those who are familiar with the industry, and how it works, say it is essential for the aca, that a fair amount of the people who enrolled are young, healthy people. to keep premiums at a minimum, and to make sure that the price structure functions. if you didn't have a certain amount of young, healthy people, you could see premiums surge. and that could undermine the entire law. so certainly this is something that the white house is feeling good about. it comes on the heels of the president announcing more than 7 million people have enrolled in health care. you'd also have to think that a

big topic that could come up, ukraine. secretary of state john kerry who just came out earlier today and announced new steps at de-escalating the crisis in ukraine, including calling on all sides to put down their weapons, and to leave buildings that have been evacuated. a lot of question marks about whether or not that's actually going to work, whether the agreement has actually has any teeth. those are some of the topics we might hear about today when president obama steps into the briefing room. >> kristen, on that point, on him leading potentially with the affordable care act, i was talking to a white house official today who said they're feeling more confident now in a place of talking about numbers, talking about the program working, this official was arguing that the attempts by republicans to say everything is skewed and go down that road, is a losing road for them. do you have a sense from your time here at the white house, as we prepare to hear from the president at any moment, about their eagerness to sort of

engage on the aca's performance? >> i think that's a great point. and you have heard the president's tone change in terms of talking about health care. it's almost democrats not to run away from health care. he's saying, okay, it's okay to talk about it, because these figures are moving in the right direction. these are the target goals we're looking for. that doesn't necessarily mean you will hear mark running a tough race in alaska touting the affordable care act. but what it does mean is that fewer republicans will be calling for repeal. or if they do, they'll actually -- fewer of them might actually think that that's a valid argument. i think what you will start to hear more so from republicans is how they can change the law, how they can alter it. i think the argument about repeal starts to become less convincing when you have the administration having reached some of these stated benchmarks, like the 7.5 million people who

have enrolled, like the 35% of people who have signed up now under the age of 35. so i think that you're absolutely right, we're hearing a change in tone from the white house, which is key during this midterm election year, when you have so many democrats who are feeling nervous about holding on to their seats, and democrats nervous about holding on to the senate in general. >> it's sort of an impromptu presser. a lot of people have a number of questions, as do we. the reporters in the room. will he stay after to answer some of the questions? >> reporter: well, the white house, again, not giving a whole lot of details about what we're going to hear from the president, or what the format will be. i would tell you, though, that we haven't heard from him in the briefing room, in this format, in some time. so it's possible that he could take some questions. you never know. sometimes they just leave it up to the president to sort of

decide. but i think when you have so many issues on the table, particularly the situation in ukraine, which is so unstable right now, it's not unusual that we would hear from president obama. i'm not surprised that he's coming out today, given the situation in ukraine. also worth noting, that the administration has been adamant that they have extensions in place ready to go if they feel the situation further destabilizes, if they feel president putin continues to escalate the crisis there. but from secretary kerry's remarks today, it seeks as though the strategy at least for the next few days is to try to let this plan play out, to try to de-escalate the situation, to try to get all sides to abandon their weapons, to cease going into buildings, to stop occupying buildings and to really try to de-escalate the situation there. >> jake sherman, let me bring you back in. i'm comfortable seeing the president come out once again

touting good news about the aca. and how it's been doing. now, because we've seen way before the disastrous rollout hundreds of millions of dollars, $500 million spent since 2009 advertising on this thing. and 5-to-1 negative on that advertisement. another $5 million spent before 2015. and most of that is negative advertising. when the president has a chance to come out and speak directly to the american people about the good this is doing, and noting to people, 7.5 million, 10 million are involved in this thing, you can feel comfortable coming in, then he should be out there giving that message and counter the disinformation that's being spread. >> i think that's what democrats are worried about in this election, which is rapidly approaching, that the opinions are already baked in about the health care law. that no amount of good numbers, or good statistics could beat back the amount of bad advertising that's happened, and all the money that's being spent. that's a real problem. and add to that that the republican outside groups, these

superpack pags that are pouring in the money you talked about, are far outpacing democratic outside groups. politically saying nothing about the policy, politically the deck is stacked against the democrats in this. the president can talk about what he considers good things for democrats. but as you said, it's not clear if that will help beat back some of the bad messages that it's had four yes to get soaked into the minds of a lot of americans. >> but jake, we are starting to see some movement. we saw the generic congressional ballots move in the direction of democrats. we've seen some positive polling coming out from red state democrats. the messaging from the republican side really has been almost exclusively about obamaca obamacare. so if the landscape does shift on obamacare and becomes not such a winning issue for republicans, do they have another sort of trick up their sleeve, or are they all in on anti-obamacare for their winning

message for 2014? >> they're all in. but they don't talk about the policy broadly, but they talk about obamacare, which costs jobs. but republicans privately will concede that they are overplaying their hand here. because in specific districts across the country, i've spent a lot of time in colorado, candidates there aren't exactly sure how many people have been affected by the health care law. adversely affected that is. while people might be angry and might not like the policy, it's not clear if they're going to come out to vote for a republican, if they haven't been adversely affected by the law. so that's one of the big things that we haven't seen kind of play out. but i think that it would take -- it would need a drastic reversal to become a political positive for democrats this year. >> it does become a more uncomfortable potentially for republicans when they have people in their districts at their town halls, who have gotten insurance from obamacare. >> i think that's right. and to jake's point as well,

politico had a story this week that this is the first really extended recess since that ended. let's broaden this out as we've been reporting, we're awaiting the president to come out to address us on a number of issues. ukraine on the top of mind. we don't know what the president is going to say, from your experience, what else is the white house trying to push proactively? it is still april. this session of congress is not over, even if it's in some remission. there was talk about immigration, we're seeing the president now in the interview, now seeing any minute here coming out to address the press. so is there anything from your reporting that you might expect him to push beyond these reactive issues? >> reporter: i wouldn't be surprised if immigration came up as well. i think it's a really important point. president obama met with faith leaders earlier this week about the topic of immigration reform. he also spoke with eric cantor just yesterday about immigration

reform. the two butting heads, not seeing eye to eye on how to proceed there. but i know that the administration is getting a lot of pressure from its constituents to keep immigration reform in the spotlight. what they would like to see is some type of movement on this by this summer. there has been a bill passed in the senate. the house is taking a very different approach. they have these piecemeal pieces on immigration reform. the president said he would only accept a broad piece of legislation. in recent months we've heard the president walk that type of language back a little bit and basically said that what he wants to see, what he would sign is something that gets immigration reform accomplished. so the question is, can they find some common ground there. but the fact that you have president obama meeting with various interest groups who want to see immigration reform get passed, suggests that this is something we're going to be hearing a lot more about from

this president, and from this white house. >> to what you were just saying, you would hope you would see folks at town halls saying to lawmakers who want to repeal the aca, will actually, i've gotten obamacare, i'm in the program, my friends, my family. but facts often don't change people's minds. and i could see folks say, in kentucky, saying, i don't like obamacare, i like connect, not understanding it's the same thing. important points the president may want to talk about, the 35% number you talked about before, under 35-year-old folks. helping to keep that risk pool down where it needs to be. and also, insurers out saying that there's going to be a 7% raise in health care premiums, not anywhere near the double digit numbers that a lot of conservatives have been screaming about will happen. both of those numbers lead to people being able to be optimistic about the near future of this thing. >> right. and don't forget about the 7

million figure, which was the obama administration's stated goal from the beginning. they said they needed to get 7 million people to enroll by the end of the first enrollment deadline. they have exceeded that. that is significant. because it makes it very difficult from a practical standpoint to actually repeal this law. because now you have 7 million americans who actually have health care, who didn't necessarily have it before. so that is something that you have heard this president talk about significantly. one of the things moving forward, and as you know, president obama recently nominated a new -- his nomination for hhs secretary, sylvia matthews burwell. of course, she hasn't been confirmed yet. but one of her goals moving forward will be to smooth out what has been a somewhat rocky relationship between the administration and the insurance industry. and meeting with the members of the insurance industry, i think

part of that process, to try to smooth things over, because the administration has made some changes in terms of deadlines to the health care law. and in my conversations with insurance officials, that has made their job a lot more complicated in the past several months. so i think in this second phase, when the second enrollment period goes into effect in november, one of the goals of this administration is going to be to have a much smoother relationship between the administration and the insurance industry. and again today, i think the first step, i think sylvia matthews burwell is another big part of that process. >> congress is out this week, but we've seen president obama sort of all over the place yesterday speaking about the economy. in pittsburgh, and now in this impromptu presser. how much of this is to bypass the gridlock and do things on his own? and talk about obviously it seems like there will be good numbers he will report, showing he's on top of the crisis in ukraine. how much of that is symbolic

here? >> i think a lot of it, he wants to show that the democratic party, the white house is pushing forward. but to the extent that he pushes immigration reform, and talks about immigration reform, that issue is not going anywhere in the house. and i think that's become abundantly clear. the president said he wanted to get this done before last summer. and here we are in april, and that's not going anywhere. so i think if democrats are running against a stuffed congress, they can make that case. but i think the more the president goes out and talks about these issues, and demonizes republicans, republicans would say that's not helpful for him in a legislating sense. in the next three years, should he want to get something, a big immigration package done or something of that nature, as eric cantor said yesterday, it becomes more difficult when the president is beating republicans over the head. >> and they've been so helpful up until now. you know, this is really going to change the situation, i

think. >> it's definitely a helpful excuse for republicans. there's no question about that. >> right. >> but whether it actually further gums up the process, i think there's an argument to be made it's not a helpful thing. >> jake, you know, one thing that has struck me is republicans are very united in their messaging around obamacare. it's terrible, it's going to destroy the country, it needs to be repealed in its entirety. that has been very clear coming from their side. are democrats as unified around an affordable care act message? because it seems to me like they're not. and that partly undermines their ability to push a message to the public about the attributes of this law? >> the republicans have very little else to talk about. they have not a lot of legislative accomplishments over the past four years, aside from controlling spending. if you talk to democrats, there is really no clear consensus about what the messaging should

be. we did a story a couple weeks ago that democrats aren't really sure what the problem is with the health care law, whether it's the messaging, whether it's the policy. so -- >> it's all of it. the whole thing. repeal the whole thing. >> for democrats, they haven't unified around an election season message on the health care. to an extent, that's kind of by design, because you have people running for reelection in red states like georgia, and in blue states like california. so there's going to be variation on the message. but no, republicans have been remarkably unified. they've seen no fraying, no pulling off of the anti-obama care message. >> kristen welker, this conversation has been all domestic all the time. because we are america first sort of show. but obviously the news media has a bad news bias. so i imagine if the first question isn't about ukraine, the second question will be about ukraine. and somebody asking, mr. president, how far are you

willing to let putin go before you actually do something? >> reporter: right. here's some of the key issues under consideration here at the white house. a second round of sanctions. what would be included in those sanctions. the administration has signaled that they are considering much harsher sanctions. so far they've sanctioned a dozen people close to putin, one bank. what is under serious consideration is sanctioning the various sectors of the russian economy. so more of the banking sector. to really have a bigger bite, to have a bigger impact on putin. and another big debate here behind the scenes at the white house is whether to send military aid to ukraine. so far, the administration has not done that. they have agreed to send some assistance to ukraine, but non-lethal assistance. you have lawmakers like senator john mccain, marco rubio, urging president obama to take more action and to send military aid

to ukraine. now, there is still broad agreement that this shouldn't escalate into a military confrontation. in other words, that the united states is not going to intervene militarily. and nato has no intention of intervening militarily. having said that, nato does have a very strong presence in the region right now sending a message to russia that they are not going to tolerate a further escalation of the crisis there. those are some of the things that the obama administration is considering. and again, they are getting a lot of pressure from lawmakers, particularly republican lawmakers who want to see president obama take stronger action in the form of sending military aid, and so i would anticipate if president obama does decide to take questions, that that would be one of the questions that he will get. another one might revolve around this news that we're learning today, which is that members of the jewish community in ukraine have been targeted, have been given leaflets, urging them to identify themselves, to prove their citizenship. this is something that president

obama's going to, i would guess at some point, talk about. it's something that's enraged a lot of people. not only in europe, but here. >> kristen, i want to jump in to talk about that. we've been reporting, of course, secretary of state john kerry speaking out in the strongest terms against that. and it does seem, as you mentioned, this appearance by the president, we're waiting for him to come out any moment, will be the first time he's spoken since these reports have been confirmed. and it does something interesting from condemning the humanitarian aspect of it and anti-semitism aspect of it. the foreign policy dynamic is one where we've heard many complaints from putin about the treatment of ethnic russians, and people that he identified with russia. some of those claims have been reported as highly exaggerated. yet here it will be the ukrainian side that is now looking out for the opposite

direction of mistreatment. >> reporter: right. and i think that is what makes this situation so fragile. and that is why you have so many foreign policy experts watching this closely, and saying, this could evolve into a regional war. because you have this buildup of ukraine military forces along the border. some people looking at that and saying, could that give putin an excuse to say, in the name of protecting his own people, the pro-russian separatists, that he is going to move in and take further action. as you point out, he has made one of his key arguments that you have groups, russian groups within ukraine who are being mistreated and discriminated against. so you have so many different versions about what is actually happening on the ground this. and there doesn't seem to be any effort, at least on the part of president putin, to de-escalate. just as of today, after we had this agreement come out of those talks in geneva, you had more

very strong language from vladimir putin really showing no signs of retreating. but the dynamic that you describe is why this situation is so fragile and why so many people are concerned that any miscalculation on either side could lead to some type of broader military engagement in that region. >> we are waiting for the president to come out any moment now. we'll go to break and bring it to you right after that. (laughs) it's more than just a meal, it's meow mix mealtime. with wholesome ingredients and irresistible taste, no wonder it's the only one cats ask for by name. who would have thought masterthree cheese lasagna would go with chocolate cake and ceviche? the same guy who thought that small caps and bond funds would go with a merging markets. it's a masterpiece. thanks. clearly you are type e. you made it phil. welcome home.

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we're going to go live now to the president in the briefing room. >> before i begin, i just want to express on behalf of the american people our deepest condolences to the republic of korea and the families of all those who have seen their loved ones lost when a ferry sank within the last couple of days. obviously information is still coming in. we know that many of the victims of this terrible tragedy were students. and american navy personnel and marines have already been on the scene helping with search and rescue. as one of our closest allies, our commitment to south korea is unwavering, in good times and in bad. and that's something i'll underscore my visit to seoul next week. before i take questions, i'd also like to say a few words about how the affordable care act is now covering more people

at less cost than most would have predicted just a few months ago. the first open enrollment period under this law ended a little over two weeks ago. and as more data comes in, we now know that the number of americans who have signed up for private insurance in the marketplaces has grown to 8 million people. 8 million people. 35% of people who enrolled through the federal marketplace are under the age of 35. all told, independent experts now estimate that millions of americans who were uninsured have gained coverage this year. with millions more to come next year, and the year after. we've also seen signs that the affordable care act is bringing economic security to more americans. before this law added new transparency and competition to the individual market, folks who bought insurance on their own regularly saw double-digit increases in their premiums. that was the norm.

while we suspect that premiums will keep rising, as they have for decades, we also know that since the law took effect, health care spending has risen more slowly than at any time in the past 50 years. in the decade before the affordable care act, employer based insurance rose almost 8% a year. last year it grew at half that rate. under this law, real medicare costs per person have nearly stropd growing. the life of the medicare trust fund has been extended by ten years. and the independent congressional budget office now expects premiums for plans on the marketplace to be 15% lower than originally predicted. so those savings add up to more money that families can spend at businesses, more money businesses can spend on more workers. and the affordable care act will

be lower than previously predicted by an extra $100 billion. the bottom line is, under the affordable care act, the share of americans with insurance is up, the growth of health care costs is down, hundreds of millions of americans who already have insurance now have new benefits and protections from freedom from lifetime caps on your care. no american with a preexisting condition like asthma or cancer can be denied coverage. no woman can be charged more just for being a woman. those days are over. and this thing is working. i've said before, this law won't solve all the problems in our health care system. we know we've got more work to do. but we now know for a fact that repealing the affordable care act would increase the deficit, raise premiums for millions of americans, and take insurance away from millions more. which is why, as i've said

before, i find it strange that the republican position on this law is still stuck in the same place that it has always been. they still can't bring themselves to admit that the affordable care act is working. they said nobody would sign up. they were wrong about that. they said it would be unaffordable for the country. they were wrong about that. they were wrong to keep trying to repeal a law that is working. when they have no alternative answer for millions of americans with preexisting conditions who would be denied coverage again. or every woman would be charged more for just being a woman again. i know every american isn't going to agree with this law. but i think we can agree that it's well past time to move on, as a country, and refocus our energy on the issues that the american people are most concerned about, and that continues to be the economy. because these endless, fruitless repeal efforts come at a cost. the 50 or so votes republicans

have taken to repeal this law could have been 50 votes to create jobs by investing in things like infrastructure, or innovation, or 50 votes to make it easier for middle class families to send their kids to college. or 50 votes to raise the minimum wage, or restore unemployment insurance, that they let expire for folks working hard to find a new job. the point is, the repeal debate is and should be over. the affordable care act is working. i know the american people don't want us spending the next two and a half years refighting the settled political battles of the last five years. they sent us here to repair our economy, and restore our founding prop is of opportunity, not just for a few, but for all. and as president, that's exactly what i intend to keep doing as long as i'm in this office. with that, i'll take some questions. let's see who we've got. kathleen hennessey of the "l.a.

times." >> it sounds like there's been some develop in the ukraine talks in geneva. i'm wondering if you could describe your level of confidence in what this agreement is, and how you can be sure russia will follow through, given some of the remarks from president putin this morning. >> i don't think we can be sure of anything at this point. i think there's the possibility, the prospect that diplomacy may de-escalate the situation, and we may be able to move towards what has always been our goal, which is let the ukrainians make their own decisions about their own lives. there was a meeting in geneva, representatives of the ukrainian government, russian government, the eu, as well as the united states. it was a lengthy, vigorous conversation. my understanding is that the ukrainian prime minister gave a detailed and thorough presentation about the reforms they intend to introduce,

including reforms that provide assurances for ukrainians who live in eastern and southern ukraine, that they will be fully represented, that their rights will be protected, that russian speakers and russian natives in ukraine will have the full protection of the law. and my understanding, based on what i've heard, is that this was an acknowledgement in the meeting that the ukrainian government in kiev had gone out of its way to address a range of the concerns that may have existed in southern and eastern ukraine. there was a promising public statement that indicated the need to disarm all irregular forces, and militias, and groups that had been occupying

buildings. there was an offer of amnesty to those who would willingly lay down their arms, evacuate those buildings, so that law and order could be restored in eastern and southern ukraine. the russians signed on to that statement. and the question now becomes, will in fact they use the influence that they've exerted in a disruptive way to restore some order, so that ukrainians can carry out an election, move forward with the decentralization reforms that they've proposed, stabilize their economy, and start getting back on the path of growth and democracy. and that their sovereignty will be respected. we're not going to know whether in fact there's follow-through on these statements for several days. and so today i spoke with chancellor merkel. later on in the day i'm going to be speaking with cameron. we're going to be consulting

with our european allies. over the last week we have put in place additional consequences that we can impose on the russians if we do not see actual improvement the situation on the ground. and we are coordinating now with our european allies. my hope is that we actually do see follow through over the next several days but i don't think given past performance that we can count on that and we have to be prepared to potentially respond to what continue to be, you know, efforts of interference by the russians in eastern and southern ukraine. if, in fact, we do see improvements, then that will obviously be a positive. in the moan time we'll make sure we continue to help the ukrainian government to stabilize their economy and start reforming it. we're going to continue to work with our nato allies to make

sure that they are assured that we're going to meet our article v obligations and that they are secure and as i said before, i had a an interview with major yesterday that i mentioned, this whole exercise by the russians is not good for russia either. i think a number of articles today indicating the degree to which an economy that was already stuck in the mud is further deteriorating because of the actions and in my conversations with president putin, i've emphasized the same thing, that we have no desire to see further deterioration of the russian economy but we'll uphold the basic principle of sovereignty and territorial integrity for all countries and there's a way for ukraine to be

independent, to be sovereign, and to have positive relationships with both the west and the east, with boast its european neighbors and its russian neighbors, and that's our primary concern. maria pena. >> thank you, mr. president. i've got a hot spot for you here in the u.s. house majority leader eric cantor said or claimed that you haven't learned how to work with them and he's angry you're attacking the gop on lack of movement on immigration reform. i wonder how you respond to that. the second part to that you have hunger strikers across the street demanding relief for undocumented immigrants. i'm wondering if you can dispel the rumors or there's a leak from the white house you will make announcement in the coming weeks to expand that relief for the undocumented. thank you. >> well, i actually had a pleasant conversation with mr. cantor yesterday, i did.

you know, you know, you're always kind of surprised by the mismatch between press releases and the conversation. i wished him happy passover and what i said privately is something that i've said publicly, which is, there is bipartisan support for comprehensive immigration reform. it would strengthen our economy. it would help with our security and it would provide leaf to families who many of whom have lived here for years and who have children and family members who are u.s. citizens. and the congress should act. and that right now what's holding us back is house republican leadership not willing to go ahead and let the process move forward.

so it was a pretty friendly conversation. i think in his press release i gather he was referring to the observation that we've made a day earlier, that it had now been a year since the senate had passed a strong bipartisan bill and that we heard a lot of talk about the house republicans being interested in doing something, nothing happened yet. and suggesting that we need urgency here. i still feel the same way i know there are republicans in the how as in the senate who know this is right thing to do. i also know it's hard politics for republicans. because some in the base are opposed to this. but i also know there are families across the country who

are experiencing great hardship and pain because this is not getting resolved i'm know there are businesses around the country that could be growing faster, that our deficits could be coming down faster, that we would have more customers in our shops if we get this thing resolved. we know what the right thing to do is, it's a matter of political will. it's not any longer a matter of policy. i'm going to continue to encourage them to get this done. as far as our actions, jay johnson, new head of the department of homeland security, has been talking to everybody law enforcement, immigrant rights groups, to do a thorough review of our approach towards

enforcement and we're doing that in consultation with democrats and republicans and any interested party i do think the system we have right now is broken. i'm not alone in that opinion. the only way to truly fix it is through congressional action. we have tried to take as many administrative steps as we could. we're going to review it one more time to see if there's that we can do to make it more consistent with common sense and the attitudes of the american people, we shouldn't be in the business of tearing families apart who otherwise are law abiding. and so, so let me -- i won't get into timing now because mr. johnson will do that review. tam ra keith. >> regarding the affordable care act. >> yeah, let's talk about that i

think everyone agrees it has flaws. but democrats have been sort of reluctant, in congress to reopen the conversation and republicans have been more than happy to reopen the conversation but in a different way. now that, as you say, it's here to stay, there's so many people signed up, in this environment is it possible to corrects that business community and many others woum like ld like to see technical corrections. >> it's absolutely possible but it will require a change in attitude on the part of the republicans. i have always said from the outside any large piece of legislation like this, there are going to be things that need to be improved, tweaked. i said that i think i signed the bill. i don't think there's any hesitation on our part to consider ideas that would

improve the legislation the challenge we have is that if you have certain members in the republican whose view is making it work better is a concession to me, then it's hard in that environment to get it done and i recognize their party has been gone through the stages of grief, right, anger, denial, and all of that stuff. we're not at acceptance yet. but at some point, my assumption is, is that there will be an interest to figure out how to make this work in the best way possible. we have 8 million people signed up. through the exchanges. that doesn't clutinclude the 3 g people to stay on their parents'

plan, it doesn't include the 3 million people who benefited from expansions of medicaid. if my math is correct, that's 14 million right there. you've got another 5 million who signed up outside marketplaces but are in part of the same insurance pool. so we've got a sizable part of the u.s. population now that are in the first -- for the first time in many cases in a position to enjoy the financial security of health insurance and i'm meeting them as i'm on the road. saw a woman yesterday, a young woman, maybe 34, with her mom and her dad, she's got two small kids and self-employed husband, and it was diagnosed with breast cancer, and this isn't an abstraction to her. she is saving her home. she is saving her business. she is saving her parents' home

potentially because she's got health insurance, which she just could not afford. and the question now becomes, if in fact this is working for a lot of people but there's still improvements to make, why are we still having a conversation about repealing the whole thing, and why are we having folks say any efforts to improve it are somehow handing obama a victory? this isn't about me. and my hope is, is that we start moving beyond that. my suspicion is that probably will not happen until after november, because it seems as if this is the primary agenda item in the republican political platform. but here what happei know. the american people would rather see us talk about jobs, would much rather see us talk about high college costs, would much rather