Lew defends new contraception policy

[OKNancy]

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/12/lew-defends-new-contraception-policy/

(CNN) – White House Chief of Staff Jacob Lew stood by the administration’s recent policy change on contraception coverage Sunday, arguing the new plan ensures women can keep their “right to preventive care” while religious institutions can respect their principles.

“This was a challenge to reconcile two important principles, and the president found a way to reconcile those,” Lew said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “There are others who don’t have the same objective, and they have to speak for themselves.”

SNIP

Pressed on whether insurance companies will actually comply with the new standards and offer free contraception provisions, Lew said the rule will hardly make a dent in insurers’ pockets

“As somebody who has done budgets for a lot of years, usually when people say to me that something doesn’t cost a lot of money, I ask them how could that be? This is the exception to the rule,” Lew told CNN Chief Political Correspondent Candy Crowley.

rest at link

[OKNancy]

1. also in the same interview

Lew Says Infrastructure Spending Still Needed to Bolster Economy

White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew said hundreds of billions of dollars in spending for roads and bridges, education and manufacturing are necessary to keep the U.S. economy growing.
“Most Americans understand that a crumbling infrastructure is not the way to build an economy that can last,” Lew, the former White House budget director, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program. “We need to make sure we have a manufacturing base in this country” and workers with the needed skills.
President Barack Obama submits the fourth budget of his presidency tomorrow, a multitrillion-dollar package that calls for $350 billion in short-term spending to create jobs and a $476 billion highway bill, while saying it will cut $4 trillion from the deficit over a decade, partly by raising taxes on the wealthy.
Much of the budget, which envisions a $1.3 trillion deficit this year, declining to $901 billion next year, represents a repackaging of proposals that Republicans in Congress have largely blocked or rejected as unworkable or unnecessary.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-12/lew-says-infrastructure-spending-still-needed-to-bolster-economy.html

[OKNancy]

2. and finally on Fox he said

“He ( Obama) has a very deep belief that every woman has the right to all forms of preventative health care, including contraception,” Lew said on “Fox News Sunday”. “He also has a very deep belief that its one of the core principles of our country that we have respect the religious liberties that this country is built on. The solution that we reached is consistent with those core principles.”