Marco Rubio: Postponing Obamacare mandate a "prudent approach"
(CBS News) Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., says he will introduce a bill to postpone the Affordable Care Act individual insurance mandate until HealthCare.gov is fixed.
He called effort to postpone the Obamacare measure a "prudent approach." On "CBS This Morning," he said, "It's unfair to punish people for not purchasing a product that they can't purchase right now because of the technology that's in place, the web site they're supposed to buy it on -- by the president's own admission -- is not working.
As Obama defends health care law, Republicans renew efforts to stop it
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Watch Bill Plante's report on the president's recent comments about the HealthCare.gov Web site below.
He said all he is calling for is a delay on the requirement until the U.S. General Accounting Office certifies the Web site is working and has been functioning for six consecutive months.
Rubio said he's hopeful the measure will pass, especially as the deadline draws closer. "As weeks go on, there's going to be a look for a solution to the problem. It's not fair to punish people for buying something that's not available," he said. "Quite frankly, I think that's where we're going to have to wind up anyway. You saw yesterday, the White House didn't rule out a delay. Jay Carney didn't rule it out because they understand that the problems that this web site faces are significant and are going to be very difficult to fix in a number of weeks."
"CTM" co-host Norah O'Donnell asked Rubio about Gov. Jeb Bush's recent comments that Republicans in Congress should show restraint on this issue to let the health care law play itself out and see the massive dysfunction. Asked if he disagrees with Bush, Rubio said, "I actually think this approach that I'm outlining is a restrained one, although I believe that the whole thing should be repealed and replaced. This bill doesn't do that. All it's calling for say limited delay on the individual mandate until the web site is fixed."
For more with Rubio on the bill he plans to introduce and further discussion on Obamacare, watch his full interview at the top of this article.