In the Washington Post account, it says: "She pledged that the glitches are 'fixable.'"
Did she say "glitches"? I'd like to know, because I think they need to move on to a new word. "Glitches" is so 3 weeks ago. It was intended, back then, in the early days of HealthCare.gov, to calm us... to palliate... and it just doesn't work that way any more.
Also old and increasingly intolerable: politicians claiming to be as or more emotional that the people they are hurting.
At least Sebelius toned it down a step from Obama's "no one is madder than me." It's possible to step it up and present oneself as the angriest person. Even Obama did not go there. He merely said no one is madder. So maybe some people are equally mad. Sebelius's rhetoric seems milder, but in fact, it too is a claim of matching the level of anger of the most angry person.
I know it's the old empathy routine, but I have no empathy for them and their empathy routine. For one thing, these people are actually pretty calm, and given the amount of time they had leading up to the opening of the website, it's not believable that they approached their task with great energy and passion. It seems to me that the timeline was set for political reasons, to skirt the 2012 elections and to make good-seeming things hit at the point when it would help most for the 2014 elections.
For another thing, would you really want the angriest person in the world working on your incredibly complicated technical problems? I know most people don't experience the images in language as concretely as I do, but in my mind, when the President of the United States says there is no one madder than he is, I picture a total lunatic in the White House.
Okay, now, you can pull Kathleen's head out of the teapot. She's joined the fellowship of politicos who assure us they're at the top level of madness.
Hey! Teapot. Nice image:
"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked....The White House....
Alice had not gone much farther before she came in sight of the house...
... it was so large a house that she did not like to go near till she had nibbled some more of the left-hand bit of mushroom.Yeah, we're calling that "the blue pill." Obama said you're going to need it.
There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it; a Dormouse was sitting between them, fast asleep....So... find a better tea party.
"Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.
"I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't take more."
"You mean you can't take less," said the Hatter; "it's very easy to take more than nothing."...
"At any rate, I'll never go there again!" said Alice, as she picked her way through the wood. "It's the stupidest tea-party I ever was at in all my life!"
Posts
84 comments:
As has been asked --- how is "accountability" blaming numerous other parties for weeks now?
They LIED. No ifs, ands, or buts. It's demonstrable that they lied and KNEW they were lying. The policy cancellations? Obama could undo ALL of them by forcing changing of regulations --- but he will never do that. Nor will Sebellius.
"Glitches" don't last for weeks. They last for a day or so. After that, they are problems. She had over 3 years and hundreds of millions to get this done and failed, spectacularly, at doing so. She was warned repeatedly of the problems and ignored all of them.
She either didn't tell Obama or he is lying...both are indicators that he really shouldn't be President.
Why would ANYBODY give her MORE opportunities now? And Obama doesn't care about this, one way or the other.
They haven't seen anything yet. The website is the least of the problems. Reagan said leftism (I refuse to use "liberalism") is a mental disease. They simply don't understand human nature. The Soviets bought Lysenko's nonsense because they wanted to change human nature and couldn't wait for another generation. He convinced Stalin that it could be changed to "a new Soviet man."
Obama is in good company. As elites isolate themselves, they lose what little sense they were born with.
Again Uncle Harry, where does the buck stop?
Ultimate accountability rests with You-Know-Who.....
Ah...I see what you did there...:)
I'll believe they're mad when they're mad like Joe Pesci with a phone.
I mean, he's already very sorry.
I picture a total lunatic in the White House.
Careful there, Professor. The Madison thought police are apt to come kicking your door down for that one.
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master - that's all."
Through the Looking Glass.
What does it mean when a bureaucrat says I am accountable? Absolutely diddley-squat.
A competent boss would have fired her. But if you screw up in the Government, nothing happens. It's where mediocre people go to work (except for the National Weather Service, which does awesome work).
"Whoa, just a second there professor: We... fixed the glitch."
"We always like to avoid confrontation whenever possible. Problem is solved from your end."
It's preemptive mad. How can you be mad at a person who's madder than you at the same thing.
They don't call her madam for nothing.
hahaha we have nothing but victims running this country. Special thanks goes to the education system which has helped at least 2 generations of American children recognize their victimhood, the American media who enable the victimhood of our leaders by reporting every vacuous claim of "I'm as shocked/frustrated/angry about it as anyone," without holding them to a higher standard, and the LIVs who keep voting in these poseurs.
I like picturing them all in sackcloth, stomping around a circle of ash, shaking their fists, hurling their curses at the earth.
The "We are pissed!" PR campaign.
Proposed legisation
"Affordable Care Act : repealed."
"I am accountable, and so I am stepping down."
Obama's got a lot of political capital riding on this. It's his 'signature' legislation.
They're not going to stop now, even if it's failing this badly.
As I watch Obama and Carney tell us again and again with a straight face that "the President didn't know," I realize just how prescient Clint Eastwood was with his empty chair routine.
But people need to quit focusing on this lie. Look, the plan was to dismantle the individual health insurance market, and that is happening right now. But people like Moyers, Barro, et al. are not being exposed for their "It was crap insurance" talking point. Next stop: single payer, and at a time when most social democracies in europe are looking to dismantle or provatize some their welfare state benefits. And don't think that Americans will resist single payer because of the failure of Obamacare.
The earth is sacred, Freeman, and Gaia needs to be restored to its most pure state our knowledge, collective will and regulation can allow.
No, they're more likely cursing everyone else, especially the political opposition. THEY are the problem. The ignorance of the masses they are guiding is the problem.
Their ideas and the means they use to achieve political power are never the problem in their minds.
I'm watching the live testimony, buffered by about 40 minutes. Mike Rogers (R-MI) just grilled Sebelius at length on testing of the security of the data transfer, storage, and backup.
Sebelius clearly doesn't understand the technical issues she's being asked about. Testing, timelines, "modules", "hot swapping", "cloud", "data" and "data center"-- these are vague notions to her. But she tries to answer anyway, often with (paraphrasing) "I won't say I don't know, but I want to give accurate info, so I won't answer and will get back to you."
Imagine any big IT firm releasing anything close to this complex with such disastrous results. Linux, Windows, and OS X are all vastly more complex in terms of code, and Oracle routinely releases working systems with vastly more complex systems in terms of data transfer and storage. Amazon IT systems all by themselves almost certainly dwarf healthcare.gov.
So no one is more angry about this than Obama, while Sebelius is as angry about it as anyone. Did they get together to compare exactly how angry they each are, only to realize it was a tie?
I'm picturing the Web site "fixed" so the front end appears to work even though the back end does not.
That way, customers will interact with it and think they have bought insurance.
But because the back end is FUBAR, insurers will still receive only corrupted, unreadable files (if they receive anything at all).
That should buy some time, at least until they have to talk about "glitches" again when people actually start to make claims.
Sebelius makes Dilbert's Pointy Haired Boss look good. Listen, the first thing you have to do when developing a system is understand the requirements. This system (it's far more than just the website) is derived from a 2000+ page piece of crap legislation and reportedly 16,000+ pages of implementation regulations. That's bad enough but they kept changing the requirements well into September. It would've been a major miracle had the system actually worked. But political hacks like Obama and Sebelius are too stupid to know any of that. You can't fix this by giving another speech and throwing additional bodies at the effort will only slow things down even more (Brooks Law).
Prof. A. said It seems to me that the timeline was set for political reasons...
Yes, with these folks it's all politics all the time. The other team is only marginally better IMHO.
So the answer is, if ya doesn't like what they do with the power, then don't give them the power.
- Hammond (card carrying Libertarian; major fan of Charles L. Dodgson)
P.S. But as to the Tea Party, I'd be fonder of 'em if they stayed more with the Taxed Enough Already idea and the 'religious right' were a less visible presence.
"...we will write you a letter, telling you how angry we are."
What will soap opera women tune in to, is the question.
The narrative will follow soap opera women, whose tastes give the news of the country.
This is like a classic often used comedy bit where when confronted with an angry mob, the rightful object of their anger distracts the mob with his own anger and joins them.
Only this is real, and the only laughter should be laughing this administration off the stage. Unfortunately, there will be plenty of political actors willing to check their ethics at the door to continue to lie to us to support this turkey.
So... find a better tea party.
There will never be an acceptable Tea Party to anyone who accepts the left's demonization campaign. That's why a decent America starts with casting the left out.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/10/grayson-ratchets-up-tea-party-kkk-flap-saying-the-truth-hurts/
Larry J:
"This system (it's far more than just the website) is derived from a 2000+ page piece of crap legislation and reportedly 16,000+ pages of implementation regulations."
This is why I think the focus on the website issues, while welcome, is peripheral. I'm willing to take the Secretary at her word that the problems with the website will be fixed in due course. But I believe fixing these will be trivially simple compared to actually administering the policy successfully.
"I am accountable' yet no one is fired.
Benghazi
Fast & Furious
IRS Tea Party suppression
NSA
And now Obamacare.
And Obama's answere... 'I know Nootthhhingg!'. Yea the Sgt. Schulz excuse.
Hope for changer in 2014.
Maybe this scandal should be called "Teapot Dumb" (h/t to Warren G. Harding!)
I used to develop computer systems for a living. I would have been so. fired. for a clusterfarg like this, I would have never worked again.
Modular testing, a sense of personal responsibility for what you're developing, frequent meetings with the end user, constant buffing and polishing before that final roll-out - all of those things which normal people do were ignored here.
Bug or feature? You decide.
"But as to the Tea Party, I'd be fonder of 'em if they stayed more with the Taxed Enough Already idea and the 'religious right' were a less visible presence."
What you are reacting to is the myth of the "right wing" Tea Party. I have been to meetings and rallies. It is a libertarian movement which tried to take over the GOP and was temporarily thwarted by the IRS on Obama's orders. We'll see how that works out next year.
Olympia Snowe would make a good replacement for Kathleen Sebelius, if Olympia could be persuaded to take the job. Or, wait for it ... Hillary Clinton.
A Republican Senator should suggest this, Hillary is trusted, bring her back to fix healthcare.gov, sure that might mean putting other ambitions on pause but this is important, how can she say no?
It's time for the A team, right, so that should include the cabinet-level leadership. And who is on the A team, Kathleen or Hillary?
If not a comedy bit, perhaps its a poker hand.
If Obama and company find someone demonstrably angrier, are they obligated to up their anger in order to match them. Obama: "I'll see your anger and raise you 3 blood pressure points.". Sebellius calls.
Regardless, whether they raise, call, or fold, we know they're bluffing.
Accountable is the new responsible, which is to say meaningless.
The only relevant term is liable, as in "if something goes wrong, bad things happen to someone who is liable".
The problem is that none of these folks are liable.
This is BS. Sebelius can't "testify" sensibly because she has no idea what she is talking about, nor should it be expected of her, since the White House never had any intention that she should "run" the HHS when they nominated her.
You look at the lineup, and it is quite obvious that competent management is the last thing the Obama Administration wanted from its cabinet secretaries and agency heads.
What comes next:
"Look, the reason your insurance has been cancelled or your rates have increased is because of the greed of big business and Republicans.
By supporting the ACA as written in Congress, the President tried to work within the existing private insurance system. He would have preferred to go directly to single payer, but the heartless Republicans made this impossible by insisting on defending their rich greedy corporate doners.
Now Americans are paying too much or losing their coverage just so greedy corporations can make a profit and Republicans can get political payoffs.
The website is not the problem, it is a distraction. The system is broken. It is wrong to profit from the misfortunes of Americans with health problems. Health care is every human's right.
Here is the Democratic Party's plan to transition to single payer, but Americans must reject the extremists in the House in 2014 so we clean up this mess, fix health care and get on with the business of governing this great nation."
Mark Steyn, always one for a vivid image, gets this one off this morning:
Most developed nations have a public health-care system and a private health-care system — of variable quality, to be sure, but all of them far simpler to navigate than America's endlessly mutating fusion of the worst of both worlds. Obamacare stitches together the rear ends of two pantomime horses and attempts to ride it to the sunlit uplands. Good luck with that.
Whatever you do, Alice, don't drink from the bottle labeled "IF YOU LIKE THE SIZE YOU HAVE NOW YOU CAN KEEP IT".
Actually, Kathleen Sebelius is not as frustrated and angry as I am. I am even angrier than the president who wrongly claims to be angrier than anyone but is apparently unaware of the magnitude of my anger. And frustration. More frustration than Sebelius by a factor of, probably, 1.637X. Maybe more. But just like their anger and frustration, my anger and frustration is doing nothing to fix the big frustrating problem of a website that does not do what a website, a retail website, ought to do.
Sebelius sprong ze in paniek op!
in Washington, accountability for screwups apparently never includes consequences.
I just wondering what it will take for democrats to reject these failed ideas and programs? they are so embedded in their belief system in spite of what's known as reality.
"The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday – but never jam to-day."
PB Reader said...
I just wondering what it will take for democrats to reject these failed ideas and programs?
Widespread acceptance that the replacement be more government control and spending.
Nietzsche claimed that the respect Christians had for Christian values such as honesty and truth ultimately subverted Christian belief. It would be easier to believe in God if Galileo and Darwin did not exist, but Christian respect for he value of truth required Christians to countenance their theories........This is not so with liberalism where mendacity is considered the highest ideal. Bill Clinton did not lose support when he was caught in a flame broiled whopper. Democrats respected the panache and aplomb with which he lied. Any fool can tell the truth, but only someone with Clinton's intelligence and savvy can parse words so elegantly. Obama and his team have been caught in some obvious lies, but this will only make the Dems bond closer to him. By God what a clever man. He really knew how to put it over on them........Dems don't feel betrayed by liars such as Alger Hiss. They respect the devotion and self sacrifice and commitment that went into his absolute loyalty to a lie.
I love how a bunch of dems in the hearings started with the rhyming. Their new one is "fix it, don't nix it". Not as catchy as Bush lied, people died or, mend it, don't end it. Or even "if the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit".
I do wonder why dems keep resorting to these ridiculous rhyme schemes to justify their laws. Are their voters so dumb they can only process 4 words? Also, in this particular case the use if the word "nix" really seems like a reach for a rhyming scheme. Scraping the bottom of the barrel for rhymin slogans.
But here are a few in response:
Can't fix, must nix.
Don't mend it, end it
Obamacare sucks, stop passing bucks
Obama lied, health plans died.
"P.S. But as to the Tea Party, I'd be fonder of 'em if they stayed more with the Taxed Enough Already idea and the 'religious right' were a less visible presence."
per Michael K, where do you get your information?
I'd be angry too if I were an overbearing incompetent laughing stock.
You know what? She can't quit. She will have to sign up for Obamacare without her taxpayer subsidized gold plan.
Our company cafeteria shows CNN exclusively on a large flat screen TV. If I was one of the Republicans grilling Sebelius I'd ask why the Obamacare regs promulgated by her agency force women who've had hysterectomies to pay for pregnancy coverage. War on women, anyone?
Eventually the web site will work, sort of, assuming that the outside agencies such as IRS can handle the work load that is passed along to them so that subsidies can be calculated. But post-menopausal women will still be paying for pregnancy coverage.
Another question is can the government invalidate contracts that were legally valid when executed? If not then how can the ACA require insurance companies to terminate plans that were grandfathered but aren't ACA compliant?
But as to the Tea Party, I'd be fonder of 'em if they stayed more with the Taxed Enough Already idea and the 'religious right' were a less visible presence.
@Hammond,the Tea Party movement is and has always been a movement of fiscal conservatives. Some individuals who are both fiscally and socially conservative have joined, and are welcome as far as I can tell (I'm not a Tea Party member myself). If you're going to fall for left-wing lies, then you have only yourself to blame for the consequences.
Big Mike said...
War on women, anyone?
I wouldn't make it so specific. Just note that we're paying more (either themselves or the government on their behalf) for less benefit and the uninsured are still uninsured.
And keep hammering that Obama and everyone involved lied repeatedly to our faces while attacking everyone who pointed it out. And in many cases they're still doing so.
And further start pointing out this mess is because they understand their job to be passing a law rather than delivering on it. People like that cannot be in charge of execution.
@Marshall, specifics make it, well, specific. The regulations that surround Obamacare are riddled with problems, too many to point out in one sound bite. But this one comes across to everybody as being a prime example of overreach. And if you don't like that one, there are others.
You knew this was coming. Hitler learns about the Obamacare rollout
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2013/10/hitler-learns-about-the-obamacare-exchanges.php
Big Mike said...
@Marshall, specifics make it, well, specific
Too much detail risks the appearance you're cherry picking the data. The broader themes resonate better, and back them up with specific people who are suffering these consequences (in their own words if possible).
These bureaucrats must submit to a contest of rage so that we might all find out who truly is the Maddest.
PB Reader said...
I just wondering what it will take for democrats to reject these failed ideas and programs? they are so embedded in their belief system in spite of what's known as reality.
I've wondered the same thing for a long time. I just came across a terrific article that explains it, PB. They believe Government is Magic. They're the American version of the Pacific Cargo Cults.
The United States government is the ultimate giant unworkable mess. It is a living cargo cult where everyone marches around following routines that are supposed to yield great prosperity, but never do. The processes themselves are broken and make no sense, but the cargo culturers of the government cannot and will not hear that. They know that the government will magically make everything work.
Because government is progress. Government is modernity. Government is magic.
The cargo culters on the islands, who once witnessed the might and power of the American military during WW2 make American flags and uniforms, they build airstrips and wooden control towers, and wait for the planes to land and make them rich. They don't understand why these things should work, but they do them anyway because that is how they remember it happening.
Our own cargo culters invoke FDR and JFK, they talk about the New Deal and the Great Society, they make grand promises and roll out big programs, and then they wait for it all to work. They don't understand themselves how or why it would work. But government is magic and the appearance of a thing is just as good as a real deal.
Build a website and it will work. Pass a law and they will come. Get a degree and you're competent.
There is no need to know how to do a thing. You don't need engineers or competent men. All you need to do is remember the great dreams of the past, listen to a few inspirational JFK speeches and then carve a computer out of wood and wait for free health care to arrive.
In cargo cult America, the food is free, the cell phones are free and the money can be printed forever because government is magic.
The arithmetic absurdity of ObamaCare.
It's not insurance. That's why it costs so much.
(h/t Instapundit)
@Marshal, I think both approaches have good and weak points. Personally, I don't much care for policy by annecdote -- in a country with 313 million people if you can't find someone who has been hurt by X or would be helped by Y, you aren't trying.
Meanwhile, bless you Renee Ellmers! Turns out I was slightly wrong upthread -- it's not just women who have gone through menopause or had a hysterectomy that nevertheless have to pay for maternity coverage. It's men, too!
"To the best of your knowledge, has a man ever delivered a baby?" [addressed to Sebelius]
Ellmers, you see, was formerly a nurse. In fact she entered politics because of her concerns about the Affordable Care Act, and she may be one of the few people in any branch of our government who have taken the time to understand it.
In another droll irony, I just read that Sebelius started off by saying that at least the web site has never crashed. And it crashed just as she was saying that!
I'm wrong to be an atheist. God exists, and he (she?) has a great sense of humor! Also leans Republican.
I'm reminded of David Frye imitating Nixon back in the early 70s:
"I accept all the responsibility - but none of the blame."
Wait, there's more!
Hitler learns about the Obamacare Rollout. I like the second one best.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-27/hitler-finds-out-about-obamacare-exchange-problems
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXXHYrlWla0
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2013/10/hitler-learns-about-the-obamacare-exchanges.php
Setting aside for the moment the absurd ACA and resulting regulations...
The HealthCare.gov implementation screw-up has one simple cause: Everyone involved knew, going in, that NO ONE would get fired if it didn't work.
Now, of course this is common to many public agency projects. The consequences are left as an exercise for the reader.
Favorite term describing this: ClusterFarkNado.
It is the MO of the democrats to say that they are mad or angry or outraged when something goes wrong as if they, too, are victims and are not responsible for any of it. I wish that a reporter would ask them if they are mad or angry at themselves.
It is the MO of the democrats to say that they are mad or angry or outraged when something goes wrong as if they, too, are victims and are not responsible for any of it. I wish that a reporter would ask them if they are mad or angry at themselves.
I think she been smokin' Choom's stash.
Get your War on Women!
Get your War on Women, here!
"'[The individual market] has been like the Wild West. It has been under regulated', spokesman Jay Carney said. He said the existing plans are 'almost by definition providing less than minimal benefits' and may 'charge you twice as much if you're a woman.'"
(from the WSJ)
carrie said...
It is the MO of the democrats to say that they are mad or angry or outraged when something goes wrong as if they, too, are victims and are not responsible for any of it. I wish that a reporter would ask them if they are mad or angry at themselves.
No, of course not. They care more about process and intentions than results. Any failure of a government program is justification for bigger government programs, a notion I call "failing foreward". Go read the article I linked earlier in this thread, "Government is Magic." It explains it quite well.
You have to get airborne before you can crash.
They also consider the United States to be a huge mechanized horn of plenty that will go of itself, and it is only a question of getting into position so that you can grab your share of the goodies.
Cubanbob, sadly, the government can change contracts. FDR removed gold clauses from contracts and the courts didn't stop it.
Ann asked:
"For another thing, would you really want the angriest person in the world working on your incredibly complicated technical problems"
Sure. Some of the best technical problem solvers around hate incompetence. It pisses 'em off. They won't abide it.
In certain older, more civilized, cultures when men failed as entirely as you have they would throw themselves on their swords.
Unfortunately, few appointed people in government have the integrity to take the blame for their failures.
And also, unfortunately, instead of a sword Obama only has a bus, and it's stalled out because there are already too many bodies under it.
(Because it's too much to hope for he'd use one of his drones on HHS.)
[The link above is supposed to start at 1m09s into the clip, but it sometimes doesn't work. Please skip ahead to 1m09s!]
Saul Alynsky finally has gotten to the top of the voice chain.
Obama is mercurial, which might explain the madness.
It's ok, it will only take another 0.5 billion dollars to fix. What's a few billion between friends?
Is POTUS really giving a speech in Boston right now, tacitly blaming Romney and the Heritage Foundation?
If he really IS in Boston and you wanted to get to the park in time to see the first pitch, you probably should have left yesterday.
She has a history of running the most expensive IT programs in Kansas history--one that had nothing to show for her efforts after three years. In all case, problems were sorted out after she left. She's the Jamie Gorelick of IT. And one of the Dems go-to heavy hitters.
The new Chevy Glitch.. you have to buy one, but can't get one at any dealership...
It runs on unicorn milk an 10% hopenchange.
The owners manual is 28,000 pages but no one has read it.
An angry politician is a politician looking for someone else to blame.
Today Obama blamed "bad apple insurers."
This is what socialism looks like. Shabby, grey, and mediocre.
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