[Tapper:] Welcome back to the LEAD, continuing now the politics LEAD. Read any good articles lately, Mr. President? Former National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor gave us insight into his old boss' reading habits in an interview for buzzfeed.com.
[Tommy Vietor, Former National Security Spokesman:] He reads John Borough and he reads Ezra
[Tapper:] So, you have to wonder if the president had a chance to "New York" magazine's Jonathon's latest piece this morning titled "if you like your plan you can keep it, well, not exactly." The piece corrects the president on his frequent promise that nothing would change under the Affordable Care Act, people who already have health insurance coverage budget. The White House has already backpedalling from.
[Jay Carney, White House Press Secretary:] What is absolutely true is that if you had a plan before the Affordable Care Act that you liked on the individual market and your insurance company didn't take that away from you and offer you instead something else that you didn't purchase but they provided you the same plan this whole time, you can keep it and that's true.
[Tapper:] Let's bring in the panel. CNN Political commentator and Republican strategist Ana Navarro, Washington bureau chief for "USA Today" Susan Page and columnist for "the Washington Post," Dana Milbank. Dana, what we just heard, Mr. Carney say, doesn't quite fit into a bumper sticker.
[Dana Milbank, Political Columnist, The Washington Post:] No. I think even into a tweet, it would take a bit of effort to get that out each time. And that was the problem. So the president used shorthand earlier and now he is going to be paying the price for it. And you know, it could have explained, look, under the existing system, people lose their health care plan all the time and that nothing about this is going to change that, but it didn't. And now, this president and the Democrats own everything about health care and anything bad that happens to anybody anywhere at any hospital in this country is now going to be blamed on Obamacare.
[Tapper:] Ana, Republican congressman Fred Upton of Michigan is introducing the keep your health plan act to push back on this. It would allow any insurance plans that weren't in effect on January 1st, 2013 to continue in 2014. But this has no chance of making it through the Senate, does it? Do you think this could become a law?
[Navarro:] You know, very little right now can become a law given the environment in Washington cake. But I think you are going to see a lot of backlash from the public, from the American people calling their congressmen and their senators, calling the White House angry at this. Because you have a lot of people, a lot of individuals like the woman you just interviewed, like our colleague, David Frum, who tweeted the other day about his plan being canceled. So, believe you and me, when a lot of people in the media starts getting their plans canceled, you are going hear about it a lot.
[Tapper:] Susan, I think one of the issues here is that there was, as Dana suggested, there was a simplicity to how these things were explained. Obviously, as Dana says, I think
[Susan Page, Washington Bureau Chief, Usa Today:] Yes, that's true. It has been damaging to the perception of Obamacare. We continue to have a situation where most Americans say it was a bad idea to pass this through 3 12 years after it was sign in law. But I do think we are about to get to the point where realty will begin to matter so that if they get the Web site up and running by the end of November which they promise to do, they promise repeated on Capitol Hill today, and if it works so people can go on and see their options and see what their subsidy is, and it provides them with health care that they can afford, none of this is going to matter. It is going to be fine. People are going to support Obamacare. But if it doesn't work and don't have the Web site up and running by November 30, the perception of Obamacare was a mistake, I think starts to gets set and starts to become very serious business.
[Navarro:] Look. You only have one chance to make a first impression in life. And the first impression of Obamacare is not a good one. What Susan just said may be true but there is a lot of ifs in the sentence that Susan just articulated. So if, if, if, if all those things happen, but in the meantime, for the next two months, you are going to hear all these stories of American people that are very angry with what's happening, whether it is the web cited or cancellation of plans, or losing jobs or being turned into part-time workers, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
[Tapper:] Senator Lindsey Graham tweeted something. I just want to get a quick reaction from Dana on. He wrote, where are the Benghazi survivors? I'm going to block every appointment in the U.S. Senate until they are made available to Congress. Dana, do you think that's actually possible? Is he going to really be able to block every appointment until Benghazi survivors testify?
[Milbank:] Well, look, Lindsey Graham has to say that because Lindsey Graham is going to face a primary challenge on the right and he has already seen as caving on the deal on the debt limit. So he has to start getting right with his base in South Carolina. I don't think it has lot do with Benghazi.
[Navarro:] I don't agree with this at all. This is a man that reached across the aisle and done things like go against the government shutdown, who was worked on immigration. He has shown no political courage. I think he is frustrated with Benghazi and he should be.
[Tapper:] All right, that's music in your ear as if you are accepting an Oscar, accepting an Oscar. Ana Navarro, Susan Page, Dana Milbank, thank you so much for coming in. We appreciate it as always. When we come back, if the government handed you $53 billion you would probably do what they want to do with that money, right? Why one automaker is saying it's bailout of death of an American institution. Plus bottomless mimosas at Sunday brunch were a dream for young bankers working 247 in Manhattan, but all that about to change as Goldman Sachs reconsiders the notion of what is a weekend. That's ahead.