0 fearing democratic losses in the senate, the president blinked. >> the political imperative was to delay it, for all the sensitive employers going into 2015, and try to take the issue off the table. >> but the new delays also created confusion and unfairness. some employers are exempted from providing insurance, but their worker still pays an individual mandate to punchs it. >> the administration is saying if you work for a company, that company gets another year before it has to provide you with health insurance, but in the meantime, the law requires you to have health insurance. if you don't have it, they're going to fine you. >> the administration won't comment on that, though the president did say on tuesday there are exceptions. >> we have hardship exemptions, phase-ins to make sure that nobody is unnecessarily burdened. >> nevertheless, nervous democratic candidates like this one in florida talk about obamacare like republicans. >> joe garcia is working to fix obamacare. he voted to let you keep your existing health plan and send the white house to task for the disastric website. >> the president is considering other changes which could include the individual mandate, but maybe not just yet. >> they want to have that penalty hanging over people's heads for the next month and a half. to try to force as many people as possible to sign up on the exchanges, and once the enrollment period closes, they may say, oh, never mind. the penalty doesn't apply. >> now, until then, though, the individual mandate remains in effect. some analysts argue most of the nearly 30 unilateral changes in obamacare were because some provision appeared to be a liability in an upcoming election. the individual mandate could be the next one. shannon. >> you raise a lot of important questions, jim. thanks. >> you bet. >> stocks were mixed, the dow lost 31. the s&p 500 was off a half. nasdaq gains ten. >> the senate voted this afternoon to allow the government to borrow more money to pay its billed. it follows a closer contest on a president, the national's intelligence chief, as well as the directors of the nsa and fbi, on behalf of every american who uses a cell phone or land line connection. their lead attorney is a former virginia attorney general. >> if you have used a phone in the last five years, this case is about protecting your rights as against your own government and their invasion of your privacy. >> the suit alidged that the nsa's sweeping lection of americans' phone records is a violation of the fourth amendment when prohibits unreasonable search and seizure. >> we think the government has overstepped its pounbounds. we think fourth amendment is worth fighting for, and i think a lot of americans agree with that. this isn't republican versus democrat. this isn't about the obama administration. this is about a government that has crossed the line. >> the plaintiffs are asking the court to shut down the nsa phone records program and to purge all of the data held by the nsa. while the federal courts are divided on whether the programs are legal, reporters are told the issue can only be settled by the nation's highest court. >> ultimately, the supreme court is going to be the arbiter of what it means. >> obviously, but a specific matter of litigation, i would refer you to the department of justice. >> they declined comment, but insists the wide ranging speech by the president last month addressed some of it issues. >> in an extraordinarily difficult job, the men and women of the intelligence community, including the nsa, followed protocols designed to protect the privacy of ordinary people. >> the underlying question is whether the nsa programs are efficient and effective. the lawsuit alleges they are neither, but the administration says ruling out the connection to a major overseas plot should never be minimized. shannon. >> thank you. an unusual twist on an old tale tonight in chattanooga, tennessee. autoworkers there are voting on whether to join a union, and the company management is encouraging it. john roberts tells us why. >> four years after it opened its doors as a non-union shop, the volkswagen plant has become a battle ground. >> they will be stronger when they come turth with the uaw. >> i have been in three unions, i didn't have a good deal under any of them. >> voke weiagons head office was to create a union. that would give assembly workers a say in how things are wrun. they demand they form or join a union first. >> i'm proud to be working at volkswagen. >> the uaw who has long sought to unionize workers in the campaign, left. >> opponents have launched a counter campaign, warning chattanooga could become the next detroit. >> it will be a threat to both the jobs that this plant has created in chattanooga and the economic health of the community as a whole. >> tennessee officials have warned volkswagen may lose state incentives to expand if it goes union. bob korber helped bring the plant in and says this is more about the uaw's future than what's good for workers. >> the key to survival was to be able to come down and organize the plants in the southeast. >> volkswagen is one of nearly a dozen foreign-owned nonunion auto plants across the south. opponents of unionization fear it could be the first of many dominos to fall. >> i believe you're going to see more unionization. i also believe you will see some of the competitive advantages begin to dissipate, and that's bad. >> we reached out to the uaw several times for comment, but they ignored our requests for an on-camera interview. voting wraps up at the chattanooga plant friday night at 8:30. shannon. >> john roberts in atlanta, thank you, john. up next, what's being billed as a catastrophic snow and ice storm all across the south, but first, here's what some of our fox affiliates are covering tonight. fox 25 in boston with a not so smart move by the really smart folks at m.i.t. they are apologizing after erroneously telling some applicants they had been accepted to the prestigious school. >> louisville with a sinkhole under the national corvette museum in bowling green, kentucky. swallowing eight cars earlier today. the hole is estimated to be 20 to 35 feet deep and 40 feel kroot. >> and here is greenville, north carolina. the big story there tonight, the massive winter storm bearing down on the south. a state of emergency is in effect for south carolina. the government is urging motorists to stay off the roadways. that is tonight's live look outside the beltway from "special report." we'll be right back. 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