Healthcare. Govs lead contractors test before congress about the problems plaguing the web sites with even democrats voicing their frustration. There are thousands of web sites that handle concurrent volumes far larger than what healthcare. Gov was faced with. Amazon and ebay dont crash the week before christmas, and pro flowers doesnt crash on valentines day. Other democrats have joined the call for an extension on the deadline to enroll in the healthcare exchanges. So, could we see a delay in the individual mandate . After all, lets ask wall street journal columnist, dan, and kim, and Editorial Board member joe riggo. Joe, a new story came to the for this week in addition to the headline but the dropped coverage. Policy holders getting notices saying theyre losing their coverage. That wasnt supposed to happen here. You may remember president obamas frequent incant addition, if you like your health plan, you can keep your health plan. Why arent they able to keep their health plan. The current coverage right now does not comply with all sorts of Affordable Care act mandates and regulations. The essential health ben fits rule, for example. The minimum required for coverage. These are ten areas of coverage that all health plans must cover. But people like them or they wouldnt have them. Exactly. They wouldnt buy them. A health plan like Kaiser Permanente in california, dropped half their business in the state. One of the most Popular Health plans and held up as a model of health reform, california blue, 80 of their policies. So there are 19 million people, as i understand it in those individual and Small Business markets, that is, who arent parent of larger corporations, who buy on the individual market. How many of these people could lose their current coverage . According to a peerreviewed study in the journal of health affairs, half of them are probably going to lose their coverage, and probably more. The healthcare bill included a grandfather clause that was supposed to give these people a safe harbor when the health and Human Services department write it, it was narrow and its hard to qualify. They wrote it restrictively, and thats tossing people out. This is deliberate political choice. Exactly. The entire apparatus of the bill is about political control. So when they say your health plan is inadequate, your need to get something better, something we have approved, thats why youre seeing these cancellations right now. Amazing. Dan, lets talk about the exchanges. You followed the hearings this week. What did we learn about the development of the web site signon . We developed that theyre obviously not ready for prime tomorrow, and theyre going to bring in the ateam to fix it. So they say. So they say. Were the using the c team, the dteam . They did got this is one of the most complicated software a pieces of architecture that is communication complex and was going to be hard. Theres one aspect to the failure that we need to focus on a little bit, and if this is a failure of Computer Science but what is a failure of actuarial science. The insurers are telling them we need to have this up and running by november 1st, so that the insurance pool will include Healthy People, young, health people, who are uninsider, not just the sickest people. If they dont get that right, these changes are going to be wholly unbalanced, full of the sickest people, which will blow up the cost of the law, and thats the problem that is maybe never going to get fixed if young, Healthy People pull back from obamacare. Is this just a technical o. Management problem in developing the web site, they didnt go to right computer contractor . Is there something larger near terms of how they proceeded. You mentioned deliberate political choices, and that does factor into the failure of the exchanges so far. One thing we learned at the hearing was that hhs was acting as the general manager of the 55 contractors who were spending actually about a billion dollars, we now know, on building this web site. And normally a Government Agency would outsource that to someone with the expertise and talent to sort of be the quarterback for this kind of project. They didnt do that because that would mean somebody else would decide what is supposed to be valuable or appropriate to the consumer they didnt want to give up that political control. Speaking of politics, ken, political fallout is growing. What you wrote a column this week how democrats are beginning to get nervous, how widespread is that concern . Widespread and growing. The white houses greatest protection here has been has maintained a solid wall united with it in the senate, mook its democrats, against doing any big change to this law, and you saw this in the shutdown. So you mentioned new hampshire, senator, jean shaheen, who wrote a letter to the white house saying we need to extend the Enrollment Period and drop the tax penalty on those who cant enroll. Within a day she had six more Senate Democrats behind her on that. Five of the six altogether. They are very much worried about how theyre getting hit with this back home, and the importance here is that once they stepped out and admitted there needs to be some change to this, the pressure is going grow on them to do something even more significant. Just delay the Enrollment Period, that would seem to be very i mean, almost essential. But that gives them a little political cover. Are they going to go as far as republicans want them to do which would be say delay the individual mandate for a full year . If they dont do that, arent democrats trying to get political cover and not addressing the big problem . Thats what theyre trying to do at the moment no question. But the important of having agreed there is a problem now, they have opened themselves up to the question of, if theres a problem, what are you going to do to actually fix it . Given theres going to be continued hearings in the coming weeks, more of these kind of revelations about just what a big mess this is, its going to be hard for these guys to dodge at some point doing something more. All right, kim, thank you. When we come back, republican governor Chris Christie, well on his way to a big reelection win in the bluest of blue states. Will his new jersey record and this weeks gay marriage controversy hurt him with conservatives in 2016 . But i am so stuffed up, i cant rest. [ male announcer ] nyquil cold and flu liquid gels dont unstuff your nose. They dont . Alka seltzer plus night fights your worst cold symptoms, plus has a decongestant. [ inhales deeply ] oh. What a relief it is. Getting the right nutrition isnt always easy. 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No motor income income tax is and they have big unfunded liabilities. His Reelection Campaign themees, i stopped the bleeding . He is going do win big, we know that. I think the real question is whether he has coattails and can flip a house of the legislature to get the state growing, get some real reform . Where is he falling down thinks state income tax is very high. A cut didnt succeed. And then the state Business Environment is still not very good. I think thats the problem. He needs to go a lot further on reform. New jersey, the Unemployment Rate of 81 2 . All of its neighbors in the sevens in so for the sake of me and my fellow citizens and his president ial as separations, he has to get some reform in the next four years and try to get a vibrant economy going. Dorothy, what do you make of his tenure and his Reelection Campaign . Well, his Reelection Campaign, hes going to win big. He is the head of a victimized state, its catastrophe hit. Hurricane sandy. This is going to elevate his standing in many ways. I look at him now, on the stump, and i see the future of the political run. He has not only not lost any of his magic powers, he has gained. He has these moments of reaganesque brilliance. On a debate somewhere some somebody asks is opponent to Say Something nice about the governor. She says some sleazy cheap thing. She is a state senator. And he gets to Chris Christie, who says, this woman is the most magnificent public servant, a wonderful mother, she could not be a better servant. He does it this is the point in this incredibly heartwarming, credible way and not political. Been no one is going to be bored. The gay marriage controversy would not stand in his way in 2016. Absolutely not. His presence is an overwhelmingly magnettive one, and think about the absence in the 201 president ial e 2012 president ial campaign. Think about mitt romney who could not connect, nor could the one before. He is a person that cant fail to connect. What bat that embrace last year of the president before the election, which really didnt please a lot of republicans. He embraced president obama and christie says i got a lot of money out of it. What am i going to do . Im the governor of a stricken state. Have to work with the president. Will that hurt christie in the 2016 primaries . Not we the general population. It will hurt him with republican professional but a is it known that latebreaking voters went to own because of that photo op. It hurt romney. Now, Chris Christie is going to argue that he is the candidate who can incorporate the center. That these independent voters and so forth. We have just powerful argument. Powerful argument. But the government shut down has displayed that there are highly animated, aggressive conservative voters out there and that ills a faction in the party that is going to have to be dealt with the primaries. His argument is, i can win. And one of the things that does for, it gets Campaign Donations from the big money people who really want to win. So at this pents he is feeling a march on his competitors. Is, i can win, winning theme among republican primary volters . I think he is going to have a problem with his record, and talks about the economy not growing the way he would like. Now, he says, well, the private sector is growing. And had to work with a democrat legislateure. But has not gotten the Pension Reforms like scott walker in wisconsin. He wail have a lot of competitors who come from redder, faster growing, more competitive states. So its going to be some distance since sandy when he is talking to republican primary voters, he needs to have more. Garrett you dont think thats a problem. Not from what i say, but i have to say, we did have a visitor who shall go nameless, but a politically asuit one, who says i dont know if you can sell christie to middle america. He says i dont know how much you can do with somebody whose notion of political connection is, shut up. Well, he would have to change that appeal. Theres no question about that. All right. Thank you. Well be following this. When we come back, longtime ally in the middle east, pulling no punches in the obama administration. [ male announcer ] once in a while, everything falls into perfect harmony. [ engine revs ] and you find yourself in exactly the right place at the right time. Just be sure youre in the right car when it happens. The 2014 cclass sports sedan. Power, performance and style in total alignment. See your authorized mercedesbenz dealer for exceptional offers through mercedesbenz financial services. Through mercedesbenz life with Crohns Disease ois a daily game of what ifs. What if my abdominal pain and cramps end our night before it even starts . What if i eat the wrong thing . What if . What if i suddenly have to go . What if . 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Grandpa soon, the worlds most intelligent servers, designed by hp, will give ups over twice the performance, using forty percent less energy. Multiply that across over a thousand locations, and theyll provide the same benefit to the environment as over 60,000 trees. Thats a trend we can all get behind. One of our staunched allies in the middle east, saudi arabia is threatening to scale back in its decadesold partnership with white house over the white house failure to stand up to syrian president bashar assad and willingness to engage iran in nuclear negotiation. Bret stephens has more. So bret, this is a 70year partnership. How serious is this breakup and whats behind it . Serious in the sense its now publicment people have been hearing privately for a long time, since the beginning of the obama administration, the unhappy ins in riyadh towards the obamas willingness to negotiate and extend its hand to iran, and then its dissidence in dealing with irans client, bashar assad. Now its completely out in the open. Their foreign minister did not come to give a speech at the u. N. They turned down a seat at the u. N. Security council. The prince who was for many years ambassador here, had a talking with european diplomats who let the americans know how unhappy they are. So, for them to be as public as they are, is what is most just to show you how public, i want to read something from prince al faisal. The current charade over the chemical weapons would be fun if if it were only designed to givemer obama an opportunity to step book and allow mr. Assad to butcher his people. He said that in public. You dont hear how often do you hear a saudi aristocrat to rebuke the proper critique. People are being butchered in syria. You dont look to saudi arabia as a pair gone of human rights but some might ask, the saudis have not the government but the royals have financed jihadists around the world, including some of those who ended up attacking us on 9 11. Is it really that so bad for u. S. Interest if theres a rep tour in the relationship . We have been too close. Quoting lyndon johnson, wed rather have these guys in the tent instead of outside. Thats true of a lot of allies. If washington said were going to downgrade relations with saudi arabia until they start cutting ties with their islamist extremities, that would be understandable. But is over purely strategic shared interests. Countries can share strategy even if they dont share values. What the tinge bleeding in syria is doing to them, even to israel, and they see an america that is just not willing to honor its security guarantees. Fascinating, dan, israel and saudi arabia seem to have the same perception of this administration, and the same criticism of its weakness in the middle east. Paul, and the next question is, what other western leading nations in the region are coming to that conclusion . Such as turkey, or egypt if it ever gets is its act together. Big countries and strategically important countries. The issue here was the pullback from the red line. The chemical weapons the saudis, everybody there thought we were going to do that. Then he pulls back to do a deal with Vladimir Putin over the chemical weapons with turkey red called. And then within ten days, suddenly president obama is calling up the president of iran, rouhani, to strike a deal over nuclear weapons, and for everyone in the region this is abruptly shuffling the balance of power over there, and the saudis pulled back, and i think the tucks may as well. Theres what are the consequences . What does it mean for u. S. Interests . Were entering into a world in the middle east of Foreign Policy free lancer. For many years israel restrained itself from attacking iran because it believed that it would rather follow the united states, follow its diplomatically and militarily. Now its on its own. Are so the saud saudis, its every man for himself. When we come back, hits and miss