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News, Politics

Sen. Rand Paul is threatening to hold up the nomination of Janet Yellen to chair the Federal Reserve unless the Senate votes on his Fed transparency bill. And, a source had revealed that Rand Paul has already informed Senate leadership of his intentions.

“As part of Senate consideration of the Janet Yellen nomination to be Chair of the Federal Reserve, I will request a vote on my bipartisan Federal Reserve Transparency Act, S. 209. The American people deserve transparency from the federal reserve and the federal government as a whole,” Paul said in a statement following the reports.

A Senate Democratic aide said on Friday morning that the possibility of Paul, alone, to block the nomination “should not be overstated.” Senator Paul, in total, needs 40 senators to back his effort to block Yellen’s nomination, without which, Senate leadership could simply steamroll his effort.

Even though Senate hearings have not yet even been scheduled, the Democratic aide said the Senate leadership is confident the nomination will succeed, despite Rand Paul.

Paul plans to formally put the hold in place next week when the Senate is back in session. The mainstream media is already trying to scare Americans by linking Paul’s potential hold up of Yellen with Wall Street pull-backs Friday.

“Markets gave back some of their earlier gains on the report,” CNBC reported. But the market slump Friday was due to economic news that was not favorable, rather than an anonymous source quoted in a report. A report released Friday showed U.S. consumer sentiment dropped in October to its lowest level since the end of last year.

The senator’s bill would mandate a complete audit of the Federal Reserve, which may very well end the corporate crony party fueled on cheap, printed money that will ultimately cause inflation. The Federal Reserve has been printing money to buy up U.S. Treasury securities, known as quantitive easing, with the logic that unattractive interest rates will force investors into equity investments, therefore driving economic growth.

Wall Street has been raking in the trillions, literally, while the working American savers are hosed in the process. With interest rates as low as they have been artificially kept for years following the crisis, the American worker cannot earn a return on savings that even keeps pace with inflation, greatly harming the ability to save a nest egg for retirement.

Furthermore, although many would disagree, the practice dubbed QE3 has not succeeded in sparking economic growth, which is why the Fed is now stuck in a “catch 22” and cannot terminate the program. Janet Yellen is a fan of “easy” money monetary policy, and unlike Lawrence Summers who withdrew his name from consideration, would be tickled pick to rubber stamp further printing press operations.

According to Sen. Rand Paul’s website, his bill is a version of legislation advocated by his father, the former Texas congressman and presidential candidate, Ron Paul. The two libertarian-minded, free market advocators have been fighting to audit the  Fed for years. Last presidential election cycle, Ron Paul succeeded in altering the Republican Party platform, which now includes an audit the Fed provision in the mainstream party principles.

Sen. Rand Paul is threatening to hold

News, Politics

Photo taken July 23, 2013 of the Capitol Dome in Washington, DC.(AP)

Ten Senate Democrats sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Friday urging her to bend on the individual mandate, by extending the ObamaCare enrollment deadline.

The list is growing, because so many are realizing that the government shutdown did not change the political winds in their individual races as much as the liberal media contends. But some of the Senate Democrats are joining in to give the letter more credibility, though it is obvious the reason for their reversal is political in nature.

 

Just a few weeks ago, the Senate Democrats fought the effort to delay the individual mandate to the point that they shutdown the federal government for over two weeks. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) initiated the letter. Earlier this week, she emerged as the first Senate Democrat to publicly call for a delay to the healthcare law to accommodate consumers experiencing issues with the website.

“As long as these substantial technology glitches persist, we are losing valuable time to educate and enroll people in insurance plans,” the letter reads in part. “Our constituents are frustrated, and we fear that the longer the website is not functional, opportunities for people to log on, learn about their insurance choices, and enroll will be lost.”

Sens. Mark Begich (D-AK), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Kay Hagan (D-NC), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Mark Udall (D-CO), Tom Udall (D-NM), Michael Bennet (D-CO), and Martin Heinrich (D-NM) also signed the letter.

Begich, Hagan, Landrieu and Pryor are red-state Democrats facing tough reelection bids in 2014. Bennett, Shaheen and Udall hail from purple states and could be vulnerable in a midterm election. In the Senate, Republicans need just 6 seats to capture the majority. The Republican National Committee has targeted Democratic incumbents and open seats in Arkansas (Pryor), Alaska (Begich), Louisiana (Landrieu), North Carolina (Hagan), Colorado (Bennet), Michigan (Open), Oregon (Merkley), Montana (Open) and New Hampshire (Shaheen).

“Given the existing problems with healthcare.gov and other state-run marketplace websites that depend on the federally-administered website, we urge you to consider extending open enrollment beyond the current end date of March 31, 2014,” the letter adds.

“Extending this period will give consumers critical time in which to become familiar with the website and choose a plan that is best for them. Individuals should not be penalized for lack of coverage if they are unable to purchase health insurance due to technical problems.”

All of a sudden these Senate Democrats are concerned about this? The government shutdown occurred because of their inability to recognize problems with a law, not just a site, which the Obama administration knew of when he was refusing to negotiate with Republicans calling for the delay.

The White House has already pushed back the deadline to buy health insurance by 6 weeks, because Democrats voiced concerns that the botched ObamaCare rollout would hurt their 2014 election bids and potentially prevent them from taking the House.

ObamaCare requires people to have health insurance by March 31, 2014, but in order to guarantee coverage will be in effect by that date, people must actually begin the process of applying for insurance no later than Feb. 15.

Under the change, now people who have signed up for insurance by the end of March will not face a penalty, even if they do not actually have the insurance.

Shaheen and the nine other Democrats are urging the White House to push back the March 31 deadline.

Ten Senate Democrats sent a letter to

Policy

Previous reporting by People’s Pundit Daily claimed the numbers the Obama administration were giving for ObamaCare enrollment, were problematic. Now, it appears that ObamaCare enrollment, when taking off the rose colored glasses, may be exactly what we were suggesting it was, which is even worse than the problems currently portrayed in the mainstream media.

While virtually all the ObamaCare focus is trained on the program’s dysfunctional website, as Fox News has just now reported, another problem that is far more serious could be emerging. Particularly in states where individuals are able to sign up, far more are enrolling in Medicaid than private plans.

Even though the Obama administration refuses to provide figures on how many people have been successful in ObamaCare enrollment through the federally run exchanges, the trend is clear nevertheless. From the states that have provided their own relatively up-to-date figures, we can ascertain one very troubling — yet predictable — fact as it relates to the ObamaCare enrollment numbers.

Medicaid, the free health insurance program that pays nothing into the system, is getting the largest — or “lion’s” — share of the application for ObamaCare enrollment. Put bluntly, too many people are getting the free stuff, without a sufficient number of healthy, young Americans enrolling to cover the cost. In fact, we reported on the Gallup findings earlier, which demonstrated a record high number of Americans were uninsured, particularly those who need to enroll.

In Washington state alone, where liberals have been touting success, more than 35,000 people have signed up for coverage since Oct. 1. Of them, just 4,500 went into private plans, while roughly 31,000 signed up for Medicaid — with coverage kicking in sometime between now and Jan. 1. That will simply be put into the debt and deficit spending figures that are already unsustainable. That is a path headed to a place where nobody — nobody — gets health insurance.

The director of the state’s Health Care Authority said they were “pleased by the strong response of Medicaid-eligible residents.”

However, despite their stupidity, the imbalance — if it does not eventually balance out — will destroy private insurance companies, because they are relying on an influx of new and healthy customers to make the system solvent, which will in turn crash the health care the vast majority of Americans receive and would like to keep.

“There are a lot of elements of this law that have to work, that must work — otherwise the whole thing collapses,” the Cato Institute’s Michael Cannon said. “They need — need — lots of healthy people to sign up for insurance through the exchanges.”

The fact that people are flocking to Medicaid isn’t unpredictable — as Republicans and conservatives have stressed that would happen for years — but the lack of healthy enrollees on private plans is spelling catastrophe. It may be too early to cry fire, as some liberals would have you believe, but there is no sign that any of these trends will arrest, let alone reverse.

The main reason ObamaCare mandated that Americans even buy insurance was so that private insurers would get enough young, healthy Americans in the insurance pool who could offset the costs of covering older and sicker Americans. And, of course, the simple reality is that they quietly placed them in with the same pool with leeches who flock to Medicaid and have no intention of ever doing anything different. However, now at the very least, costs will skyrocket for those in the system.

“You need to have a good balance of people purchasing coverage or these reforms won’t work,” Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, said earlier.

Cannon said the mix of new ObamaCare enrollment figures could certainly change if and when the website is fixed. Then the question becomes, of those signing up, are they healthy?

ObamaCare was built to expand coverage in two major ways: by offering people subsidies to purchase insurance on the private market, and second, by expanding the number of people eligible for Medicaid.  The expansion of Medicaid was a source of political tension between the White House and Republican governors — so far, half the states have agreed to expand the program which provides health coverage to low-income Americans.

States were attempting to prepare for an explosion in Medicaid enrollment, as they have already started reaching out to potential enrollees. But this was all part of the design.

For instance, prior to the ObamaCare enrollment “exchanges” launched, the state of Maryland had signed up more than 80,000 people for automatic enrollment in Medicaid starting January  1 of 2014, without any consideration to what may happen if they weren’t able to counter the pool with young, healthy Americans.

However, the nightmare is coming true, because the enrollment since October has also only brought in a measly 2,300 additional participants — as of an Oct. 18 update.

In other states, Medicaid is also by far the more popular choice of those enrolling this month.

The Democrat and Chronicle newspaper reports that in New York, nearly 24,000 of the 37,000 newly enrolled residents are going into Medicaid, which millions of New Yorkers are already on, while just 13,313 chose private plans.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated this past May that, at the beginning, more than half of Americans enrolling would be on Medicaid but that, over the next decade, the balance will shift and millions more will join private plans through the exchanges.

“Time will tell,” Zirkelbach said, and, it certainly will. But one thing is certain, which we all will soon be hearing. Single-payer — or, complete socialized, rationed medicine — is in our not-so distant future.

The ObamaCare enrollment numbers are showing lopsided,

News, Politics

Listen to Rep. Jason Chaffetz on the Laura Ingraham Show

Congressman Jason Chaffetz R, shined a spotlight on the elusive, White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, who “seems to have her tentacles into every issue and every topic” at the White House.

The Utah congressman was pointing out how she has managed to hide under one rock during disastrous rollout of the ObamaCare insurance “exchanges” with conservative radio host Laura Ingraham, who suggested that the botched website might have been the result of the administration hiring contractors close to the president’s reelection campaign.

People’s Pundit Daily, in detail, highlighted the cronyism and fact-checked the over $500 million of wasted taxpayer money, which the president shutdown the government over, despite knowing that the site didn’t even work.

Laura Ingraham said that “all roads lead back to” Jarrett, correctly identifying her involvement in “meetings as this thing was being formulated.”

“She seems to have her tentacles into every issue and every topic,” Chaffetz responded. “Her name ultimately always comes up.” The mainstream media has made a concerted effort to keep Valerie Jarrett hidden from public view. Even Democrat Pat Caddell, has consistently criticized the Obama administration over paying for Secret Service detail, because White House advisor’s — even senior advisors — have never received protection on the taxpayer dime.

Conservatives have cut back on expressing their suspicion about Jarrett’s role within President Obama’s inner circle. The former Chicago lawyer and businesswoman has been a top adviser to the president since his election in 2008, and once said that they would be “ready to rule on day one.”

Chaffetz said it was the “job, role, and responsibility of Congress” to investigate whoever it was in the Obama administration ordered contractors “how to do this and program this stuff.”

Chaffetz is a member of the House Oversight Committee, which on Friday threatened to subpoena the Department of Health and Human Services over requests for documents about problems with the ObamaCare website.

The administration has said it will comply with Chairman Darrell Issa’s (R-Calif.) subpoena, but said it would take time to respond to the broad requests for information.

Rep Jason Chaffetz shined a spotlight on

Polls

Support for gay marriage has fallen since the debate over DOMA and Prop 8 was raging and the Supreme Court handed down the rulings. During that time, a rash of polls — including Rasmussen Reports — found majority support for gay marriage in the United States.

Now, voters are again evenly split on support for gay marriage, with 46 percent opposing and 46 percent in support for gay marriage. The decline seems to be driven by Americans’ views on the definition of “marriage” and where it is that the issue to should be settled.

Voters nationwide are also evenly divided when asked if marriage is a religious or civil institution, with differences of opinion over gay marriage depending on how voters feel about these two issues.

Those who believe that marriage is a religious institution are almost unanimously opposed, while the same holds true for those who feel it is a civil institution.

Nevertheless, the survey finds that 48 percent of Likely U.S. Voters consider marriage to be more of a religious institution than a civil one, and nearly as many — 45 percent — view marriage more to be a civil institution.

However, slightly more feel laws regarding marriage should be set at the state or local level, rather than by the federal government in the Supreme Court, the executive or Congress.

Support for gay marriage has fallen since

Policy

A new Gallup and Heathways tracking survey found more U.S. adults were uninsured in the 3Q of 2013 than in any quarter in nearly 6 years they have been tracking. People’s Pundit Daily previously reported on the millions of Americans who will lost their health insurance under ObamaCare, and now a new high of 18 percent are reporting they lack health insurance.

Gallup and Heathways’ findings represent the third consecutive quarter in which the uninsured rate has increased, as the president’s new health care law is implemented.

As it relates to the new health care law, there are two considerations to underscore. First, the insurance rate was steadily declining before the implementation of ObamaCare, which has obviously had a negative impact on the rate of uninsured Americans.

The rate of uninsured Americans was hovering around 14 percent in 2008, but rose to 16 percent in 2010 after ObamaCare was passed. It climbed up to 17 percent for most of 2011, which is unsurprising due to stagnant economic growth, in large part, due to the law itself.

In 2012, amid a temporary period of economic activity, the rate of uninsured Americans rate steadily declined each quarter. The most damning piece of evidence that the law itself has negatively impacted the rate is that it has since increased, with insurers dropping Americans from their health care plans due to missing mandated criteria, employers avoiding the 30-hour work week requirement, and almost nil job creation.

While the new findings can be used as a baseline for future indications of the law’s ability to reduce the rate, future findings must also consider those who were thrown off their health care plans, because it has inflated the rate of uninsured Americans.

Second, and perhaps the biggest nightmare for the Obama administration, is the amount of young, healthy people who are uninsured and the trend that can be asserted. If the number of young people is insufficient to cover the cost associated with insuring Americans who are poor, older, have pre-existing conditions, etc., then the entire system will enter a health insurance death spiral, running up trillion dollar deficits before the entire system collapses.

A whole 1 in 4 young adults in the U.S. say they lack health insurance, which is the highest rate found by Gallup since the 3Q quarter of 2011. Ironically, the current percentage of 18 to 25-year-olds who do not have health care coverage is below the 27-28 percent range measured in 2008 through the 3Q of 2010, which is when the ObamaCare provision began allowing those up to age 25 to stay on their parents’ plans went into effect.

The system relies upon these Americans to purchase health insurance plans on their own in order to offset the cost, but the vast majority 18 – 25-year olds who have insurance are those who are staying on their parents’ plans. Most younger Americans will most likely continue to do so if they have the option, which leaves an insufficient number in the insurance pool who are needed to offset those who are not young and healthy.

The insurance death spiral can rapidly speed up if the rate of older, uninsured Americans begins to increase significantly, which is occurring already. The rate uninsured Americans between the ages of 26 to 64-years-old again ticked up to a new high of 20.8% in the 3Q of 2013, an increase of more than 1 full percentage point from the 2Q. The uninsured rate for this age group has generally trended upward since 2009, when ObamaCare was passed and the economy suffered as a result.

The percentage of seniors who lack health insurance actually declined slightly to 2.8 percent in the 3Q, but has generally remained stable around 3 percent throughout survey tracking, because a large majority qualify for Medicare. Even if that trend were to continue, the budget would still be in deep trouble. It is a damned if you do or don’t scenario.

President Obama and the Democratic Party took over $700 billion out of Medicare to pay for ObamaCare, which will cost more money as the rate ticks down or even remains as steady as it has been. The amount of Americans who will soon retire and qualify for Medicare was already at an unsustainable level before the passage of ObamaCare, but now, we are in for insolvent levels of national debt. And the kicker, is that millions of Americans will still not have a health insurance plan.

A new Gallup and Heathways tracking survey

Economy

U.S. consumer sentiment dropped in October to its lowest level since the end of last year as consumers worried Congressional dysfunction and the resulting partial federal government shutdown would hurt growth, a survey released on Friday showed.

The Thomson Reuters University of Michigan’s final reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment fell to 73.2 in October from 77.5 in September, which is the lowest final reading since December 2012.

The October measurement was lower than both economists’ forecast of 75.0 in a Reuters poll and the mid-month preliminary reading of 75.2, as well.

The 16-day federal government shut down in the first half of October — which occurred when President Barack Obama refused to delay the ObamaCare individual mandate as a condition of funding the government — is being cited as one of the culprits already.

While a last-minute agreement averted that outcome by raising the debt ceiling until early next year, rating agency Fitch warned it could still cut the U.S. sovereign credit rating because of the political dysfunction and unsustainable debt.

“When asked to describe in their own words what they had heard about recent economic developments, the number of consumers that negatively mentioned the federal government in October was the highest in the more than half-century history of the surveys,” survey director Richard Curtin said in a statement.

Other gauges also hit multi-month lows. The index of consumer expectations was measured at 62.5, which is its lowest measurement since November of 2011, and the index of current conditions, at 89.9, is at its lowest since April.

The media is citing the impasse as a likely hindrance of economic growth in the quarter and the fact that Standard & Poor’s estimated that the shutdown cost the economy $24 billion.

The one-year inflation expectation fell to 3.0 percent from 3.3 percent, while the 5-to-10-year inflation outlook edged down to 2.8 percent from 3.0 percent.

U.S. consumer sentiment dropped in October to

News, World

Christians in Iran who have been forced to worship in secret house churches, and even there, they still face persecution if caught. (Credit: Reuters)

Four Christian in Iran were sentenced to 80 lashes for drinking wine for communion, an intolerable punishment carried out even despite a new United Nations report that lambasted the Islamic republic for its systematic persecution of non-Muslims.

The four men were sentenced on October 6 after being arrested in a house church last December, and subsequently charged with consuming alcohol. Alcohol consumption is a violation of the Islamist theocracy’s draconian Muslim law. They four men are among many Christians punished for their faith in a nation where converting from Islam to Christianity is punishable by death.

According to a new October UN report by Ahmed Shaheed, UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, this “war on Christianity” and persecution is frequent, despite new Iranian President Hasan Rouhani promising to be a so-called “moderate.”

People’s Pundit Daily previously reported on Senator Rand Paul speaking about the “war on Christianity” at the 2013 Values Voter Summit, from which Muslim comedian Dean Obeidallah derives “hate speech” from. We named him the “Daily Dunce” for minimizing what he called “a few isolated” incidents, despite widespread evidence, such as the new report conducted by Dr. Shaheed, which was released by the UN.

“At least 20 Christians were in custody in July 2013,” Shaheed wrote in the report. “In addition, violations of the rights of Christians, particularly those belonging to evangelical Protestant groups, many of whom are converts, who proselytize to and serve Iranian Christians of Muslim background, continue to be reported.”

Iran’s regime has made stopping the spread of Christianity a top priority, along with Iran stridently cracking down on religious freedom. There are estimated to be up to 370,000 Christians in Iran, according to the most recent published U.S. State Department report. The Muslim clerics, who are inherent rulers in Iran, view Christianity as a threat to Iran’s majority Shiite Islamic religion.

“Despite the recent Iranian charm offensive, Dr. Shaheed’s report reminds us of the true nature of the Iranian regime where the abuse of human rights continue,” Illinois Senator Mark Kirk (R), who is chairman and founder of the Iran Dissident Awareness Program, said earlier. “Political prisoners like blogger Mohammad  Reza Pourshajari are being denied adequate medical care,  journalists and their families continue to be targets of the regime, Pastor Saeed Abedini and Amir Hekmati are still languishing in prison and the Baha’i community faces increasing persecution. This is the true nature of the regime we’re dealing with during negotiations in Geneva.”

Alireza Miryousefi, a spokesman for Iran’s mission to the UN, has yet to respond to our requests for comment, and other news organizations have reported a similar lack of cooperation.

Iran’s government criticized Shaheed’s report, claiming that the Doctor was not an objective observer. Iran’s state-run propagandist news — Press TV — an Iranian official from the UN mission said that Shaheed “has not paid sufficient notice to Iran’s legal system and Islamic culture and considers whatever he sees in the West as an international standard for the entire world.”

Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, for the record, is considered to be one of the world’s leading authorities on human rights, and quite objective. Shaheed served as the minister of foreign Affairs of the Republic of Maldives.

It is unclear whether or not the Obama administration will consider this treatment of Christians to be unacceptable with continued negotiations, but some in the president’s party are not at all complacent in this war on Christians. “It should be no surprise that Iran’s human rights record as documented by the UN is nothing short of atrocious,” said Rep. Eliot Engel, who is a Democrat from New York and ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “If the regime thinks that its international charm offensive will help whitewash its appalling human rights record as documented by the UN report, they are sorely mistaken,” Engel added.

The UN reported stated that Iran’s “Authorities continue to compel licensed Protestant churches to restrict Persian-speaking and Muslim-born Iranians from participating in services, and raids and forced closures of house churches are ongoing…More than 300 Christians have been arrested since 2010, and dozens of church leaders and active community members have reportedly been convicted of national security crimes in connection with church activities, such as organizing prayer groups, proselytizing and attending Christian seminars abroad. “

Just this Monday, a retired pastor from California, Eddie Romero, actually took the risk to sneak into Iran in order to demand the regime release imprisoned Christians in Iran. Pastor Romero bravely chose to protest in front of Iran’s notoriously cruel Evin prison, shouting “Let my people go.” Prison guards captured and held Romero before he was sent back to the United States.

Romero aimed to being attention to Christian in Iran who are imprisoned and persecuted for their beliefs, including Farshid Fathi, the American-Iranian pastor Saeed Abedini, Mostafa Bordbar and Alireza Seyyedian.

The four Christians in Iran who were sentenced to 80 lashes now — for whatever reason — have 10 days to appeal their verdict.

Mervyn Thomas, chief executive of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, correctly noted, “The sentences handed down to these members of the Church of Iran effectively criminalize the Christian sacrament of sharing in the Lord’s Supper and constitute an unacceptable infringement on the right to practice faith freely and peaceably.”

UPDATE: In response to the news, Mr. Daily Dunce — Comedian Central Palestinian “comedian” Dean Obeidallah — showed his tolerant Muslim colors via Twitter:

Is that supposed to be funny to the Comedy Central comedian? Is that the tolerance according to Islam and the Left?

Four Christian in Iran were sentenced to

News, Politics

Typical Washington finger-pointing was on full display at a tense Capitol Hill hearing, where the contractors blames the botched ObamaCare website problems on the government failed, who failed to properly test the system before launch.

The hearing that took over 4 hours with The House Committee of Energy and Commerce was almost useless in its entirety. The one and only revelation from the hearing was that some or most of the blame belongs to CMS, due to last minute alterations made to the exchanges and the lack of testing.

The Democratic Party members on the committee shamelessly recited the few success stories they have received regarding ObamaCare and failed to ask pertinent questions. For the Democratic Party, wasting taxpayer money, hundreds of thousands of Americans tossed off of their health plans due to ObamaCare, left to find insurance from a broken government-run exchange, is unimportant.

Meanwhile, the Republican Party did retaliate with the cold hard facts and inconsistencies not only with HealthCare.gov, but with the law itself.

Democrats, accused Republicans of continuing a campaign to sabotage the health care reforms instead of working to fix problems in the system intended to help millions of uninsured Americans obtain affordable health coverage.

Although, in reality, people over the age of 26 that are not eligible for subsidies, are forced to sign up for the exchanges, and pay at least double of what they would normally.

The refusal to extend ObamaCare’s mandate, which will let loose the IRS to fine Americans who can not even purchase the product that they are being forced to buy, is an atrocity.

A talking point the Democrats reiterated was “fix it don’t nix it,” a catchy phrase that must have been poll-tested and created in the secret briefing they had behind the Republicans’ back.

The Democratic Party is predictable when it comes time for events such as these, instead of getting to the bottom of the problems, they decided to try and sell it.

Representative Peter Welch and many of his Democratic colleagues thought this would be a great opportunity for advertising ObamaCare .

He went on to say what this hearing is not about, “taking away the right of our kids up to 26 to be on healthcare” and a litany of ridiculous selling points to only end with: “can you fix it?”

The first problem with his question and comments is his use of “we,” since he is exempt from ObamaCare there is no “we.” Secondly, addressing 26 year-olds as kids, is absurd, but reflects the infantilizing of the American public so characterized by a nanny state. The grand finale, he ask “can you fix it?” Many would perceive this as a simple question, but he received answers that were not definitive, but a lot of “we believe it can” responses.

The only Democrat that actually asked any questions was Representative McNerney, who attempted to find out if it was inadequate specifications, a code issue or lack of time. CGI Federal’s VP Cheryl Campbell, was vague and said if given more time they would have been able to work out the errors.

The Republican Party members on the committee posed great questions in their attempt to get to the root of all the site’s problems, and even attempted to enroll while waiting their turn to question.

The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS), which oversees HealthCare.gov, claims almost 700,000 applications have been submitted online on either the federal or state websites.

Representative Michael Burgess(R-TX) asked how many actually signed up, because there are conflicting numbers in each report, but Campbell could not reply.

Rep. Michael Burgess (TX) said he tried to sign up on the exchange at 2 a.m and was met with an error message. He also attempted to enroll during the hearing to only give all of his information and receive an error message in return. This brought him to the question of, where does this information go?

Campbell quickly stating that it goes to the “EIDM side.”  Rep. Burgess tried to figure out if the taxpayers were still footing the bill for these “fix its” and kept receiving vague answers that the CMS implemented a cost reimbursement, as they continue to do the “normal” their contract says that CGI is responsible for the development and then it moves into operations and maintenance, which is “continued bug fixes and things.”

The committee on the Republican side were only asking for transparency and all that they could get to the bottom of was that all problems stemmed from CMS. They seemed to want a last minute change to the exchanges requiring that all personal data from the enrollee must be collected first in order to “window-shop.”

However, it seems that CMS is the invisible man, they were the ones who gave the change orders two weeks before going live. QSSI’s Steve Slavitts nor CGI Federal’s Cheryl Campbell, when asked any question regarding who from CMS they would develop a case of amnesia. Both contractors did not even know who gave the orders to go live, make changes, or the details of testing the exchanges went through.

Washington finger-pointing was on full display at

People's Pundit Daily
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