WASHINGTON, D.C., October 30, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. But the president and Senate Democrats seem bent on denying that the ObamaCare website, HealthCare.gov, needs CPR.
Although the glitch-ridden website for people to sign up for health insurance exchanges, HealthCare.gov website actually crashed just minutes before HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius took the stand this morning and remained down for the first half-hour of her testimony, her fellow Democrats have strongly denied the program is spinning out of control.
Senator Jay Rockefeller, D-WV, said Tuesday that ObamaCare is “actually ahead of schedule,” if you compare it to all government programs of “large magnitude,” like “Social Security, Medicare, and a whole lot of other things.”
On Wednesday, Sebelius said the finger-pointing had gone on long enough. She just wanted to fix things.
“Hold me accountable for the debacle. I’m responsible,” Sebelius told lawmakers as she testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee this morning.
President Obama said in a live speech from Boston later today that he took “full responsibility” for his eponymous health care system's eventual success – and that it had already been achieved. “It is working right now,” he said.
His words echoed those of Marilyn Tavenner, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), who told the House Ways & Means Committee on Tuesday, “We have a system that's working.”
How well it is working is unknown. Although Sebelius said 700,000 applications had been submitted through the health care exchange website, when it is up, the administration refused to release the number of people who had actually managed to sign up for a policy.
Enroll Alaska halted its operations after a faulty website miscalculated the amount of funds they would be eligible for in subsidies. “We had expected to be enrolling 4,000 in October,” said leader Tyann Boling. “We’ve enrolled three.”
The problems besieging the rollout of the ObamaCare program – now officially pushed back six weeks for private citizens – have led dozens of lawmakers to call for Sebelius' resignation.
“No private sector chief executive officer would escape accountability after such a poor performance,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-TN, on Tuesday.
The former Kansas governor and self-identified Catholic oversaw the full enforcement of the HHS mandate, requiring businesses to provide coverage for contraceptives, abortifacients, and sterilization with zero co-pay as part of the standard basket of services.
Click “like” if you want to end abortion!
To date, the secretary has shown no signs of stepping down. On Wednesday, Obama spokesman Josh Earnest said the president had “full confidence” in Sebelius.