President Takes Charge of Website Debacle

This morning, President Obama tackled the debacle over the malfunctioning website that was supposed to allow people to sign up on the
health care exchanges established under the Affordable Care Act.  Enrollment began on October 1st,
but healthcare.gov has reportedly been unable to actually enroll anyone in the federally-run health care exchanges.  Several states that are running their own exchanges have been able to
find ways to actually enroll people, but the one maintained by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has not.   From the White House Rose Garden, the
President said that he had enlisted the nation’s top government IT solutions experts to fix the “glitches” and get the system fully operational.  "There's no sugar-coating it. The website has been
too slow, people have been getting stuck during the application process," he said.   He also shared that Secretary Sebelius would be testifying before Congress to explain what went wrong and how
it is being fixed, just not this week as the House Energy and Commerce Committee had demanded.   Pressure to fix the system is mounting.  While criticism from the laws opponents has
been expected, even House Minority Leader Nancy Pelois (D-CA) called the problems “unacceptable.”