11.21.2013
President Obama Knew in Advance About healthcare.gov Website Problems (emails)
original article written by Net Advisor™
WASHINGTON DC. President Obama has stated that he did know know, and was not informed of the technical problems relating to healthcare.gov website.
[1] House Investigates Who Knew What: emails Released
The House Oversight Committee obtained emails (PDF link below) about the troubled launch of healthcare.gov and who knew about the issues before the launch.
President Obama and at least 34 other people at U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS.gov) KNEW of the healthcare.gov website problems just days before the launch.
“Jon, Ketan, and George — When Todd Park and Marilyn was here yesterday one of the things Todd conveyed was this fear the WH has about hc.gov being unavailable.”
— Source: HHS.gov emails, 09-25-2013 (PDF), Confidential Business Records Released Pursuant to House Rules Vll(3)(b)(2) & (3)(b)(4)
The White House (“WH”) went ahead and launched the healthcare.gov website despite knowing the issues.
[2] HHS Cover-up?
Kathleen Sebelius who is in charge of the ObamaCare roll-out and is in change of Health and Human Services (HHS), said that President Obama did not know about the healthcare.gov website problems until a few days after the October 1, 2013 launch date.
“Speaking on CNN’s AC360, Sebelius was pressed on when the president learned about the technical issues surrounding the ObamaCare website. The Health and Human Services secretary said it “became clear” to the president “in the first couple of days,” but that Obama didn’t know about the problems until after the Oct. 1 rollout.”
Video: HHS Sec. Kathleen Sebelius on CNN
The HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius provided a cover-up for the President by making false, deceptive and grossly misleading statements about what the Obama White House knew and when they knew it.
[3] Obama Did Not Know Before He knew, Before He Got Caught Not Knowing What He Knew
White House Press Secretary, Jay Carney backtracked and admitted President Obama knew there would be “glitches;” however Mr. Carney qualified his statement by stating the President did not anticipate the “scale of problems” they have encountered:
“President Barack Obama knew there would be “glitches” and said ahead of time there would be problems in the October 1 rollout of a key part of his health care initiative, but “there is no question that we did not anticipate the scale of problems with the website,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Wednesday.”
Several weeks later, President Obama reversed his own press secretary’s statement by now saying, he, President Obama did not know that the healthcare.gov website would NOT be working on its October 1, 2013 launch date.
11-14-2013 Video: President Obama’s I didn’t know @0:48
“…I was not informed directly that the website would not be working as — the way it was supposed to. Has I been informed, I wouldn’t be going out saying, boy, this is going to be great. You know, I’m accused of a lot of things, but I don’t think I’m stupid enough to go around saying, this is going to be like shopping on Amazon or Travelocity, a week before the website opens, if I thought that it wasn’t going to work.”
— Said President Obama at News Conference on ACA (ObamaCare), 11-14-2013, Full Transcript (page 4) Source: Washington Post (HTML PDF) (Full video)
As it is now more transparent, the Obama Administration is not only having difficulty with the healthcare.gov website, they are also having difficulty keeping their stories straight about what they knew and when they knew it.
[4] Obama Helps – Canada – with Tech Jobs
Since there are no techies in the United States who need a job (sarcasm), the ObamaCare website was built by a Canadian firm, CGI Federal. The company that won the no-bid contract holds a top executive, Toni Townes-Whitley, who happens to be a former college classmate of First Lady Michelle Obama.
CGI Federal has received almost three-quarters of a billion dollars in U.S. government (taxpayer funded) contracts since the Obama presidency.
“Between 2009 and 2013, CMS officials awarded 185 separate task orders to CGI totaling $678 million for work of all kinds, according to USAspending.gov, a federal spending database.The Obamacare website design contract was for $93 million.”
— Source: Washington Examiner, 10-13-2013
At least one of the CGI Federal executives, Cheryl Campbell was an Obama supporter and contributed $1,000 to his election campaign.
[5] Obamacare Website Officials at CGI Had Direct Access to the White House
As it turns out, CGI Federal had high-level access to top White House officials. The company also had prior “invitation-only” access from President Obama.
“Senior executives from CGI Federal — the company that won the Obamacare website contract — enjoyed high-level access to top Obama administration officials, according to White House visitors’ logs.”
“Prior to the official award, senior CGI executives met with top White House officials and attended a number of invitation-only addresses by President Obama.”
— Source: Washington Examiner, 10-15-2013
Thus for the President to say he did not know or was not informed about problems with the ObamaCare website is clear absurd. The president’s own press secretary admitted Obama knew about the problems before the launch, and key people were copied on emails of problems with the website just days before the launch.
[6] Backtracking Again. Press Secretary – You Got Me, Obama Knew All Along
Reuters reported that President Obama “was briefed” in the spring of 2013 regarding technical problems with the healthcare.gov website.
“President Barack Obama, who has portrayed himself as surprised by technical problems with the government’s new health care website, was briefed last spring on a detailed consultant’s report that warned of system failure, White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Tuesday.”
— Source: Reuters, 11-19-2013
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Other Documents:
CMS Slide Show (March 2013) ObamaCare website (PDF)
Video credits by their respective owners.
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