Meeting Thursday with White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, Democratic Senators blasted the Obama administration’s handling of the Obamacare rollout, according to The Hill. “There’s a lot of frustration, everywhere,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said. One Democratic Senator said that McDonough “gave us the impression that he’s taking charge of the different elements and cracking the whip. He said to let him know if we had concerns.”
President Obama’s tech surge team, led by Jeffrey Zients, came to the meeting. Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) was reportedly “agitated.” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) requested an alternative timeline if the administration did not ready the Obamacare exchange website by the end of November. “I am not happy with the website,” said Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), who added, “That is a pretty common thought that we all feel.” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) said, “We want to see improvements. They’ve got to let people know what they’re doing, as they’re doing it.”
Upon leaving the grilling, McDonough said, “I think we had a really good discussion.” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) was more skeptical: “I don’t think there is confidence by anybody in the room. This is more of a ‘show me’ moment. We were all confident the system was going to be up and operating Oct. 1 and now we are not confident until it’s real.”
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