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propriate items are being used, says Jana Sweeny, the organization's director of international communications.
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Low 'Obamacare' enrollment causing heartburn for Democrats looking to next year's elections
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Add simmering Democratic discontent to the problems plaguing "Obamacare," now that first-month enrollment figures are out.
• The White House is rushing to come up with an unspecified fix as early as this week to counter the millions of health coverage cancellations going to consumers, at the same time it promises improvements in a federal website so balky that enrollments totaled fewer than 27,000 in 36 states combined.
• The White House also is taking a more open approach to changes in the law itself. "We welcome sincere efforts," presidential press secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday at the White House as Democratic impatience grew over a program likely to be at the center of next year's midterm elections for control of Congress.
• After weeks of highly publicized technical woes, the administration had said in advance the enrollment numbers would fall far short of initial expectations.
• They did, easily.
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What to watch for as Yellen faces questions at Senate confirmation hearing on Fed chairmanship
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- When Janet Yellen faces a Senate hearing Thursday on her nomination to lead the Federal Reserve, she is sure to face skepticism from Republicans who say the Fed's policies may be swelling asset bubbles or raising the risk of high inflation.
• The one thing investors will most want to know is the one thing Yellen isn't likely to say: When she expects the Fed to scale back its stimulus for the economy.
• In testimony prepared for the hearing, Yellen says the economy has regained ground lost to the recession. But she says unemployment remains too high and notes that the Fed is still trying to accelerate the recovery.
• "For these reasons, the Federal Reserve is using its monetary policy tools to promote a more robust recovery," Yellen says in her testimony. "I believe that supporting the recovery today is the surest path to returning to a more normal approach to monetary policy."
• As chairman, Yellen would likely extend the low-interest-rate policies pushed by (Continued on page 25)
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