Washington ( CNN ) -- Citing economic progress and other achievements , President Barack Obama on Friday rejected the contention that 2013 was the worst year of his presidency . Polls show Obama 's approval rating at record lows for the nearly five years he 's been in office , but he told reporters at a year-end news conference that his concern is whether things are getting better for the American people . `` If you 're measuring this by polls , my polls have gone up and down a lot through the course of my career , '' Obama said . `` If I was interested in polling , I would n't have run for President . '' Instead , he cited continuing economic growth after the recession he inherited when he took office in January 2009 and other progress , such as more than 1 million people signing up for health insurance so far under the controversial reforms he championed . `` That is a big deal . That 's why I ran for this office , '' Obama said . Nagging controversies . Later in the news conference that lasted just over an hour , he shrugged off persistent questions about controversies involving Obamacare , government surveillance and other issues with a rudimentary summation of how he sees his administration 's role . `` We get this privilege for a pretty short period of time to do as much as we can for as many people as we can to help them live better lives , '' Obama said . At the end , he wished the assembled journalists happy holidays and walked out a few hours before the first family 's trip to Hawaii on Friday night . Obama ca n't be sad to see 2013 ending . His legislative agenda outlined in his inauguration address last January after winning re-election and his State of the Union speech a few weeks later made little headway in the divided Congress . Classified leaks by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden disclosed details of U.S. surveillance efforts that raised questions about whether the government spied on its own people . Then came the botched rollout in October of the new HealthCare.gov website . Instead of cementing Obama 's legacy as the President who helped uninsured Americans get affordable health coverage , the dysfunctional website opened the 2010 Affordable Care Act to a new wave of attacks by Republicans seeking to dismantle the reforms . Obama frustration . Obama acknowledged the website problems caused `` great frustration , '' but he rejected GOP claims the overall reform law was failing and should be scrapped . Asked what was his biggest mistake of 2013 , the President cited the website woes and accepted responsibility , saying : `` Since I 'm in charge , obviously we screwed it up . '' Another disappointment cited by the President was the inability to get any of his main legislative priorities of 2013 passed by Congress , and he called for 2014 to be a `` year of action '' on immigration reform , job creation , expanded background checks on gun purchasers and extending long-term unemployment benefits . `` We head into next year with an economy that 's stronger than it was at the start of the year , '' Obama said . `` I firmly believe that 2014 can be a breakthrough year for America . '' Noting a compromise budget agreement recently passed by Congress after two years of partisan impasses on government spending , Obama said : `` It 's probably too early to declare an outbreak of bipartisanship , but it 's also fair to say that we 're not condemned to endless gridlock . '' However , he refused to budge in his rejection of Republican calls for concessions in return for their agreement to increase the federal borrowing limit -- known as the debt ceiling -- when required as soon as early March . `` No , we 're not going to negotiate for Congress to pay bills that it has accrued , '' Obama said . `` It is not a negotiating tool . '' NSA snooping . Asked about the NSA surveillance , Obama defended the government collection of telephone metadata -- records of the time and numbers called with no information on content -- revealed by Snowden 's classified leaks . He said he would make `` a pretty definitive '' decision in January on recommendations from an independent panel that advised stronger oversight and transparency for the surveillance network without dismantling it . However , Obama added that `` what is also clear from the public debate , people are concerned about the possibility of abuse , '' such as someone listening in on their phone calls . `` This is only going to work if the American people have confidence and trust , '' he said , adding there had been no alleged instances of the NSA acting beyond its legal authority in the use of data it collects . CNN 's Michael Martinez contributed to this report .
NEW : ` ` We screwed it up , '' Obama says of health care website woes . He said the United States is heading into next year with a stronger economy . But he also acknowledged that his administration has been slow to fix problems in its own system. Polls go up and down , President Obama says , while his concern is helping people .