Democrats Near Revolt Over Obamacare?
BOLDUAN: Welcome back to NEW DAY. It's time now for our political gut check of the morning. Growing dissent between President Obama and Democrats over the disastrous roll-out of Obamacare and dismal enrollment numbers that were just out. The House is facing a vote tomorrow that takes on the president's broken promise that Americans can keep their insurance plans if they like them. And a growing number of Democrats are indicating they may back the GOP bill. CNN's chief national correspondent John King is here as always. Good morning, John.</s>JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.</s>BOLDUAN: As you've said all along, that's what I was thinking this morning, what the president need to do is ensure that more Democrats did not revolt. It seems that they're running out of time.</s>KING: They are running out of time. That's the political question, stop the revolt. The way to stop the revolt is to prove you've dealt with the policy problems. The administration hasn't done that yet. So you have proposals put forward by the Republicans in the House. There are proposals in the Senate to deal with what they believe are the biggest problems. The idea he said if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your plan, I don't you can keep that plan, period. So the House is going to act on legislation and House Democrats are saying, 'Mr. President, help us, give us a lifeline, prove to us you're going to deal with this, so we don't have to support a Republican bill to change your legislation.' And the White House has not yet said how the president is going to deal with this. I checked with a senior administration official who said, quote, "We're working on it." And I said, "Are you going to do this administratively? Do you need help from Congress?" All I got was "wait". Well, I'm not on the ballot next year, so I can wait. Democrats are very, very impatient. They're saying, "No, Mr. President, we need to fix this fast."</s>CUOMO: We're on the ballot every day, John. Every day we're on the ballot. You know, I -- I don't get something about this. So help me out with it. I felt like I knew this was going to happen. I felt like when they were selling us Obamacare, they were saying, oh, and by the way, the whole key are these young people who are healthy and they have to buy into the plans, and they're going to cost them money and there are penalties. You know, how much of the 5 percent are these people and are the Democrats frozen by the politics right now instead of arguing the case?</s>KING: I think they're frozen by the politics. I think that's a great point. But they're frozen by the politics because of what the president said repeatedly. He didn't say it once. He didn't say it back when they were debating the bill in 2009. He said it from when they were debating, when they passed the bill, through the reelection campaign. And he said it empathetically without that caveat. He said, "period." If he said a small percentage will have to change, then we'd be in a different political environment right now. So, you have the policy problems, which are now causing a huge political issue for the president. And until -- unless he gives the Democrats, the fellow Democrats a clear path out, they'll suggest it for him. As you can see, that's pretty messy.</s>BOLDUAN: Isn't the policy -- put the politics aside for a second. The policy problem, as Chris is alluding to, is a real one. They need a pool of people to make the insurance plans for the sick and the people who would normally have a much higher premium to make it more affordable. That's a real policy problem. How I wonder are they going to be able to fix with this such little time left. It sounds like you're asking for more trouble. When you pull one thread, doesn't the whole thing start falling apart?</s>KING: Well, that is part of the problem. Look, from a policy standpoint, you need people to sign up, that's what keeps the cost down. You need healthy people in the pool. That's what helps you offset the cost of dealing with people who actually have serious illnesses. And one of the issues here is the young people, you know, if they logged on in the first place, remember, the president said this would be like booking an airline ticket or logging on to Facebook. He said it may be easy. Many people may have tried and decided never mind. The challenge now from a policy standpoint is over time, convincing those people, and there's the threat of the penalty out there, that you have to sign up eventually. So, again, over the long-term horizon whether they have to extend the deadline or wave the penalty for a few months, the administration says it's still confident they will get there eventually. But they're starting from way behind. Now, they're way under their own numbers. And now, they're in this environment where Republicans are saying this is not only proof they couldn't build a website, it's proof the program is flawed. You have Democrats starting to worry, some panicked. And you get into this political environment where it gets unpredictable. The president has to show them how he's going to chart a path out and he hasn't done that yet.</s>CUOMO: Why isn't it as simple as saying we have to find out how many of these 5 percent are people who shouldn't be able to keep their plans, as opposed to people who just bought substandard plans, and the law changed and they need to buy up and then extend the deadline? What's the cost of extending the deadline?</s>KING: Well, the cost of extending the deadline is if you open the door to Congress making changes, how many other changes will they try to make? And to your other point, again, if the administration essentially in writing the regulations was trying to get rid of what they believe to be substandard plans, if they go back now and say never mind you can keep them, what does that do? And then, how many changes do you make? So it's the domino effect. In this political environment where the president's numbers are in the 30s, where he's in the end of the first year of his second term, Democrats are starting to worry about themselves, not about him. If you make one change, the question is do you have to make two, three, four or six or eight?</s>BOLDUAN: Yes, I mean, with all that in mind, today is the make or break day, the White House, the administration to say something to offer Democrats some cover. So, that vote tomorrow in the House will be a tough one that will stick with House Democrats in the next election.</s>KING: You're absolutely right. Remember, that's on the Republican House. There are senate Democrat watching, too. The Democrats control the Senate. They have the responsibility there. The ones on the ballot next year, Kate, you know it from wandering the halls, they get jittery.</s>BOLDUAN: Yes, jittery, not a good way to be.</s>KING: I'm being polite.</s>BOLDUAN: You're so polite. Thank you so much.</s>CUOMO: Kate was listening to Macklemore this morning, you know, the rapper. And he has a line in his song, "change the game, don't let the game change you." The Democrats need to listen.