[Burnett:] Welcome back to the second half of OUTFRONT. Plane, train, or automobile. If you're one of the 43 million Americans traveling in the bad weather, just trying to get to Thanksgiving, this is your dilemma, how to choose. So we tried to have a little fun with this today. It is the holiday at CNN to figure it out. We sent three of our correspondents, very unlucky three, on a race. Traveling from New York to Washington. Nic Robertson flew, Lisa Desjardins took the train and Brian Todd braved the New Jersey turnpike in an SUV. That's how I would have gone. I don't know. Something about, you know, you get to have your music and zoom along in the fast lane. Anyway, who win? Got to "THE SITUATION ROOM" first?
[Brian Todd, Cnn Correspondent:] When Nic tweeted and e-mailed that he made his flight, I said, this race is over.
[Burnett:] And a good sport, Brian Todd. Anyway, Nic arrived in Washington more than two hours sooner than Brian. Brian made it to D.C., though, for a lot less, $100 for his tank of gas and tolls, compared to Nic's $500 outlay. And that was why I was wondering why he was so out of breath when he got in "THE SITUATION ROOM." I'm like, couldn't you know, what is up with that? He sounds like a nine-month pregnant woman like me. No, man, upstairs. Anyway, how will you get home, let us know. Well, shocking allegations that celebrity chef Nigella Lawson abused drugs. At a hearing today an e-mail from her husband Charles Saatchi was read in the courtroom. In it he complains Lawson was using cocaine and marijuana daily. Saatchi also reportedly called his ex- wife High-gella in reference to her constant drug use. Now that e-mail I want to know was released in court as part of a case against the couple's former personal assistant for embezzlement. The couple divorced this summer after Saatchi was pictured with his hands around his wife's neck at a cafe. CNN has reached out to Lawson's representatives, but they have so far refused to comment. Well, in classic Dubai fashion, fireworks lit up the world's largest tower. She's a beautiful girl. She really is. The Burj Khalifa is her name and those fireworks were to celebrate the city's winning bid for the 2020 World Expo. Dubai should be excited. This is a very big deal. Over the years, the six-month expedition of the World Expo, which some of you may have thought is back to the worlds fair and stuff no, this is huge money. Introducing the world's life-changing innovation and, the telephone and the escalator over history, and still a huge economic boost to the city that wins it. Shanghai hosted it in 2010, the expo pumped as much as $58 billion into the local economy. Dubai says they'll get more than $20 billion, 270,000 jobs, and expect 25 million visitors during the event. Our fourth story OUTFRONT is a major blow to President Obama. Of course, we're talking about Obamacare. The Obama administration today deciding that they're going to delay a key portion of the health care Website that would have allowed small businesses to enroll online. Now, Republicans, of course, jumped at the news with great excitement. House Speaker John Boehner calling, quote, "another broken promise, and more proof this administration's assurances have no credibility." OUTFRONT tonight, senior White House correspondent, Jim Acosta, to begin our coverage. So, Jim, how is the White House defending this latest delay?
[Jim Acosta, Cnn Senior White House Correspondent:] Well, they're saying that insurers will still be able to provide coverage to small businesses, but that small businesses will have to obtain that coverage offline. They're not going to be able to do it on the Web site. But no doubt about it, this is another mishap and the administration revealed it, Erin, just as the administration was about to pardon the Thanksgiving turkey at the White House. So Republicans pounce, accused the White House of dumping bad news right before the holiday. But just to give you a sense as to what they're talking about, officials at HHS earlier today announced they were delaying the online enrollment feature on Healthcare.gov for small businesses for one year. What that means is those companies would have to buy their coverage for their employees offline through insurers or through insurance agents. Now, officials had hoped to get this portion of Healthcare.gov working this month. As a matter of fact, officials here at the White House and at HHS thought that was going to happen. They said it was going to happen, but it's now not going to happen. Officials caution, though, that small businesses with fewer than 50 employees aren't required by law to purchase insurance under Obamacare. The law just makes that enrollment available. And as you said, House Speaker John Boehner seized on this news and said the president should use this opportunity to delay the implementation of Obamacare altogether until the bugs are worked out. And, Erin, the Democratic Party put out an e-mail to Democrats across the country today, you know, e-mailing out talking points to Democrats to use around the dinner table on Thanksgiving, when they're sitting around the table with their conservative relatives
[Burnett:] Oh, great.
[Acosta:] on how to talk about Obamacare, this was not in there. This mishap was not in there, Erin.
[Burnett:] I have to say, you know, it just would be I hope people aren't talking about Obamacare. I understand it's important. I understand that politics come up, but seriously, I hope we can all do better than that. All right. But, Jim, seriously, despite this latest failure, White House officials have obviously said this weekend that that Web site, Healthcare.gov, is going to be 80 percent "effective", quoteunquote, right?
[Acosta:] Right.
[Burnett:] Going to happen? What is 80 percent, anyway?
[Acosta:] Well, they're talking about 80 percent of the users who would be on Healthcare.gov at any time. And so, you know, there are some folks who are not going to be able to use the Web site as well as the administration would like. But what they are saying is that they believe that the Web site will be working for what they call the vast majority of users. This weekend, they say they are going to meet this target date of November 30th, which is only three days away. But, Erin, keep in mind, as the country is focused on traffic and the highways this holiday weekend, the Obama administration is worried about the flow of people on to this Web site. Earlier this week, a senior White House official confirmed to CNN that the administration met with allied groups, groups that are friendly to this White House, to urge them not to drive traffic to the site for a week. Officials at the White House and at HHS, they want to see what the demand is going to be like and they're urging consumers to avoid this site altogether at peak hours, right around 2:00 in the afternoon, and instead use Healthcare.gov in the mornings and in the evenings and weekends. And, Erin, it sounds like those warnings that you get from transportation officials to avoid highways at certain times of the day. That is essentially what the administration is saying right now about Healthcare.gov. They are just not out of the woods yet.
[Burnett:] They're hoping people are battling it out on Black Friday instead of going to the Web site. All right. Jim Acosta, thank you. And OUTFRONT tonight, "The National Review's" Reihan Salam, Democratic strategist Chris Kofinis joins us as well. So, Chris, you just heard Jim's report there. And I want to add something Majority Leader Eric Cantor said that actually reminded me of something I kind of forgotten, maybe some of our viewers have as well. Cantor said, quote, "Once again, President Obama has unilaterally delayed another major portion of Obamacare. And once again, he has tried to bury bad news around the holiday, hoping nobody will notice. These are hardly the actions of a transparent administration." Of course, Chris, he is referring to the delay of the employer mandate. That was huge news and it announced right before July 4th. You've got to admit. I mean, come on, at this point, why do it right around a holiday every time? Just own up to it.
[Chris Kofinis, Democratic Strategist:] Well, to be honest, I'm not sure they're trying to hide from the fact that there have been some problems with the rollout. I think it's pretty obvious to everyone that there are. I think the bigger question is, you know, what are we going to do about it? And clearly the problems are significant enough, but they're getting addressed. What I find kind of amusing when I hear some of my, you know, Republican friends, and members of Congress, talk about Obamacare, is I can't believe that they're this interested in health care. I mean, for years, I couldn't figure out what their ideas were, what the proposals were, how they were going to address the fact there were 47 million people without healthcare coverage. Yet, now, in spite, you know, in life all these Web site woes, you know, they are very fashion passionate about the concerns about health care, except one big problem, they don't have any solutions or any ideas what should be done to fix it or address the bigger problem. That's where I think their outrage kind of falls on deaf ears with a lot of the American people.
[Burnett:] And there is a point obviously, we have the talking points, we talked about it with Reince Priebus, Reihan, the head of the Republican committee, and they had all these things to shoot down Obamacare. They didn't have new ideas in there. But this is something that might be troubling to the GOP. According to our newest CNN poll, 54 percent of Americans believe the current problems of Obamacare can be solved. They do think it's fixable. So, the GOP that's hoping people going to think this is an utter train wreck are now going to vote for Republican, they might be counting their turkey eggs before they hatch.
[Reihan Salam, Cnn Political Commentator:] Well, the fundamental problem is, even if the website is working, even if it's up and running, Obamacare was based on a bunch of carrots and bunch of sticks. Those carrots were offering people subsidies for buying coverage. There were things like
[Burnett:] Going on your parent's coverage, right? Those are the freebies.
[Salam:] And things like the small business exchange.
[Burnett:] Right.
[Salam:] But the thing is, a lot of those carrots aren't quite as appealing as they wanted to a lot of these young invincibles, young, healthy people. And also, now, this carrot for small business. We're going to make it easy for your employees to buy coverage. That's not working either. So, then, you've got the sticks. Then, you've got the individual mandate penalties, and all of the other things
[Burnett:] And the taxes.
[Salam:] And the taxes. These are the things that are designed to get people to buy into the system. So, the thing is, if the carrots aren't working, if they're not proving terribly attractive to people, even when you have the exchanges up and running as you do in some states like Kentucky and Washington state, then what's going to happen when those penalties come down the pike as well? I think it's not just about the Web site.
[Burnett:] Chris, what about this? So, the ultimate carrot to me was people being table to stay on their parent's health care plan, right? That's popular. People like and it's important. And that happened before people had to pay for it. But now you have this problem where those people who are 26 and under are a crucial part of the cadre of people that must sign up for these exchanges for them to function. But if you get it for free on their parent's health care plan, they're not going to go pay for it on the exchange. So, hasn't the administration created its own Hobbesian dilemma?
[Kofinis:] Well, you know, first, bonus points for using Hobbesian dilemma today. I didn't expect that answer, or that question. Nonetheless, I mean, let's put something into context. You know, conservatives want to sit there and talk about carrots and sticks. This the whole idea of the individual mandate was a conservative idea. It was based on a Republican idea. We saw it roll out in Massachusetts under Governor Romney. So, this notion that somehow this is a liberal agenda is fantasy. Putting that aside for a second, when you look at the kind of mechanics of it, every bit policy when you roll out is going to have implementation issues. This one unfortunately is more severe and more dramatic because it's around a Web site. That aside, the reality is, you're going to have I think, you're going to see more significant signups as you get closer to the deadline. You know, are there going to be people who are going to be holding off because they're going to be rather pay the fine or somehow stay on their parent's coverage? Yes. But if you're looking at some of the good news that's coming out, people with pre-existing conditions now can get health care coverage. Families can now cover their young adults. You've got families who can get preventative health care. The cost curve is being bended down. There are positives that are being outweighed, unfortunately, by the negatives of this rollout.
[Burnett:] All right. Final word to you, Reihan.
[Salam:] Actually, the CMS finds that it looks like the cost curve is bending up. You've seen health care growth slow down since 2004.
[Kofinis:] That's not true.
[Salam:] But actually, it looks as though there are a variety of things, including a weak macroeconomic environment that seem to be slowing down health care cost growth. But, actually, Obamacare, it looks like it's just as likely to be increasing costs as opposed to decreasing, despite the spin we're getting from the White House.
[Kofinis:] That's not accurate.
[Salam:] If you try to blame this on Republicans, but this is a real problem that's causing real people
[Kofinis:] It was Republican idea, right? Can you at least admit that
[Salam:] It was the Heritage Foundation's idea that was resisted by Republicans
[Kofinis:] So it was a Republican idea?
[Salam:] Way back that's not that's actually not right. In 1993 and '94, you had most Republicans opposing the individual mandate then. You'd have a handful that backed it then in a different context without over-regulating plans. This is very silly. We should all be trying to fix this, just like the 39 Democrats in the House who tried to pass the Upton bill.
[Kofinis:] That's great, then fix it.
[Salam:] running away from Obamacare
[Kofinis:] a single idea
[Salam:] Democrats like Mark Begich and others who are trying to fix this.
[Burnett:] All right. I'm going to hit pause there. Thank you very much. I know a lot of you all feel as passionately as Reihan and Chris do. Please tweet us your thoughts on their comments now. Still to come, more and more employers are forcing workers to work tomorrow, Thanksgiving. Is that some sort of a sacred American day? Secular, but sacred. You get my point. Or not? Plus, Black Friday turns ugly. Customers threaten violence at America's stores already. We have a special can't-miss report. We'll be back.