Hours after President Barack Obama declared in a Thursday White House press conference that he “fumbled the roll out on this health care law” and said “that’s on me,” Obama delivered a defiant speech at a Cleveland plant wherein he vowed to “push back” against the swelling chorus of Americans opposed to Obamacare.
“We are not going to gut this law,” said Obama. “And those who say they’re opposed to it and can’t offer a solution, we’ll push back!”
Obama added: “Our politics get screwed up sometimes. Websites don’t work sometimes. But we just keep going.”
The President’s strident tone represented a striking contrast to his press conference statements uttered shortly before his Cleveland remarks.
“I understand why folks are frustrated. I would be, too,” Obama said during his press conference. “Ultimately I’m the President of the United States and they expect me to do something about it.”
Obama’s recalcitrant posture may strain already tense relations with nervous Democrats facing reelection in less than a year.
“Right now you have Democrats on Capitol Hill in a full panic,” said NBC’s Chuck Todd. “They’ve been nervous about this rollout, they’ve been upset about the website, but now they’re in a full on panic.”
A new Quinnipiac poll finds that Obama’s job approval rating has plunged to its “lowest point ever,” as just 39% of Americans now approve of the job he is doing.
Obamacare will cost U.S. taxpayers $2.6 trillion over the next 10 years.
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