Senate GOP Leader Says Obama Trying To Sell Health Care Law To Skeptical Public

LARGO, Maryland (AP) — As President Barack Obama sees it, Republicans aren't afraid that his health care overhaul will fail -- they're afraid it will succeed. He made that claim today to a crowd in suburban Maryland, with just five days to go before Americans can start signing up for coverage.

Obama says Republicans are making "crazy" doomsday predictions about the law's impact.

But Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, on the Senate floor today, said the law is a "mess" -- and that Obama is trying to sell it to a skeptical public. McConnell says health care overhaul "needs to go," and that it's "way past time to start over." He says it must be "frustrating" to Obama that people keep "tuning out" what McConnell calls "the happy talk" about the health care plan.

With polls showing many Americans still skeptical of the law, the president went back to the basics today of explaining how 50 million uninsured Americans will be able to buy coverage in new government-run exchanges.

Obama says as that day draws closer, Republicans are getting "more desperate" in trying to block implementation.

House Republicans are inserting provisions to undermine the health care law into measures needed to avoid a government shutdown and to increase the government's borrowing ability.