President Obama is calling the botched rollout of ObamaCare his worst mistake of the entire year.
“Since I’m in charge, obviously, we screwed it up,” he admitted Friday when asked about his biggest regret of 2013.
Obama was speaking at a White House news conference before heading to Hawaii for two weeks of vacation on a day when his approval rating hit a new low of 41 percent in a CNN poll.
He was nevertheless optimistic.
“I firmly believe 2014 can be a breakthrough year,” he declared.
But a new problem with the health law popped up Thursday night with the announcement of another last-minute delay — one that lets people whose plans were canceled sign up for bare-bones “catastrophic” policies or avoid fines if they don’t get coverage.
Obama minimized the impact.
“What we’re talking about is a very specific population,” he said.
“We just wanted to make sure that the hardship provision that was already existing in the law would also potentially apply to someone who had problems during this transition period.”
Pressed on his low points at the year-end conference, Obama refused to concede that 2013 was the worst year of his presidency.
“We have had ups, and we have had downs. I think this room has probably recorded at least 15 near-death experiences,” he said.
He boasted that more than 1 million people so far had gotten coverage under the law through federal and state health exchanges.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) wasn’t won over.
“With this latest delay, the Obama administration is once again admitting that the president’s health-care law is unworkable and unaffordable,” he said.
On NSA snooping, Obama said the spy agency must “strike the right balance” and vowed to announce changes in January.
“There may be another way of skinning the cat,” he said.
Obama also took a shot at lawmakers backing a bill to tighten sanctions on Iran during talks.
“The politics of trying to look tough on Iran are often good when you’re running for office or if you’re in office,” Obama said.
Sen. Charles Schumer, one of the bill’s sponsors, shot back.
“Many of us believe that ratcheting up sanctions . . . is the best way to produce peace and get Iran to forgo a nuclear weapon,” he said.