A top Democratic senator said Sunday that Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius will testify before Congress about the problem-plagued ObamaCare website, amid a growing call for her to accept requests to testify.
“Ultimately, Secretary Sebelius will testify,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the chamber’s No. 2 Democrat, told “Fox News Sunday.”
Sebelius and the entire Obama administration has declined requests to testify on Capitol Hill about the site, which has been plagued by crashes, slow responses and other glitches since it went online Oct. 1.
House Republicans are turning up the heat on Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to answer for problems with the ObamaCare website in its opening weeks.
Senior lawmakers from the Energy and Commerce Committee are pressuring for public hearing after the Obama administration and crony companies involved in the site’s development and launch said the online health care exchange was “on track” for the October 1 launch.
HealthCare.gov, which provides a s-called exchange of insurance plans in the 36 states who do not have their own site, has been plagued by a rash of problems, including crashing under unknown amounts of user traffic, failing to let customers register or purchase plans, and reportedly logging inaccurate information.
Committee Chairman Fred Upton R-MI, has honed in on Secretary Sebelius after she appeared on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” last week to talk about the website.
“Secretary Sebelius had time for Jon Stewart, and we expect her to have time for Congress,” the Michigan Republican keeps hammering.
As of now, the committee is scheduled to hold a hearing this Thursday, which will be centered on whether officials involved with the site’s construction “Didn’t Know or Didn’t Disclose” problems. Widespread reports have come out showing the Obama administration intentionally kept site problems quite to aid Obama’s reelection.
Apparently, operatives in the Obama campaign didn’t want to give Republicans electoral ammunition to attack the president and other Democratic candidates.
In just the past two days the committee members have three-times publicly called upon the Obama administration to send witnesses to testify on Capitol Hill who can provide answers.
So far, all the requests have been rejected by the Obama administration, even the letter sent Thursday directly to Secretary Sebelius.
Within the first couple of days following the failed launch, Obama said that the problems were merely “glitches” caused by the overwhelming interest in HealthCare.gov. Yet, according to Kantar U.S. Insights, over the first 13 days following the launch, the number of site visitors dropped by 88 percent, which was based on the findings of the Millward Brown Digital research firm.
Officials continue to make fixes to the software, which includes taking the insurance application part of the site offline for several overnight hours during the weekend, but amid the issues the administration still decided to add a software program that acts as a voter registration drive.
The Obama administration still has time before insurance coverage begins Jan. 1, 2013, albeit not very much if the problem is architectural in nature. Furthermore, the problem-plagued start has greatly diminished the chance of reaching the president’s goal of providing insurance for 7 million Americans in the first year, which could send ObamaCare into an insurance death spiral. If enough young, healthy individuals do not sign up to cover the cost of unhealthy and older Americans, the system will collapse.
Even if the Obama administration fails, again, relief for Americans is nowhere in sight. Analysts say the administration must fix the site by mid-February so Americans won’t have to pay a tax penalty March 31 for failing to enroll, but no plans have been made to excuse Americans, because they need the revenue from the penalties to make the system halfway solvent.
The committee is also requesting enrollment figures, which the administration has promised to release but has so far withheld.
“It’s well past time for the administration to be straight and transparent with the American people,” Upton said recently. “Top administration officials repeatedly testified everything was on track, but the broad technological failures reveal that was not the case… The president and top officials were quick to boast the number of visitors to HealthCare.gov, but they have since gone silent.”
The calls for Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to resign, which began with Sen. Pat Roberts of her home state of Kansas,have been growing by the day.
“There must be accountability for this astounding failure and waste of taxpayer money. We’re seeing more than just a ‘glitch’ or two; this is systemic failure,” Reince Priebus, Chairmen of the Republican National Committee wrote in a statement.
“The Obama administration had red flags and warning signs that ObamaCare wasn’t ready for primetime, but Sebelius and company ignored them, flipped the switch and watched as the site crashed. Sebelius abused the trust and tax dollars of the American people. If this were a company and not the government, she’d already be gone. She should be fired,” Priebus added.
The calls on not just coming from the right side of the fence,
“I hope they are working day and night to get this done,” as the former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told MSNBC he agreed. “And when they get it fixed, I hope they fire some people that were in charge of making sure this thing was supposed to work,” Gibbs said.
As of now, Kathleen Sebelius retains the full support of a president inclined to ignore outrage amid scandal.
“The White House is smart enough to know that if she steps aside or they ask her to resign, they will never get anybody else confirmed,” Ellen Gilligan, Sebelius’s sister, told the New York Times. “Plus, I don’t think they hold her responsible.”
White House press secretary Jay Carney, when asked about comments made by Gibbs and others on the left, he claimed Sebieus will be going nowhere. “The secretary does have the full confidence of the president,” Carney said.
