Kathleen Sebelius Dodges House Requests To Testify At ObamaCare Hearing

Debra Heine

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is dodging House Energy and Commerce Committee requests  to testify at a congressional hearing next week inquiring into breakdowns in the launch of ObamaCare.

An HHS official confirmed on Saturday that she will not testify at the hearing, Thursday, citing a conflict in her schedule. 

“We are in close communication with the committee and have expressed our desire to be responsive to their request,” the official said.

Leaders of the chamber’s Energy and Commerce Committee are eager to speak with Sebelius about her repeated assertions that the online health care exchange was “on track” for the October 1, when we all know  it wasn’t anywhere near ready for prime time. 

The “ObamaCrash” site (as it’s been dubbed) is but a harbinger of things to come because the whole ObamaCare system was designed to fail and lead us to Single Payer. As Ann Coulter told Judge Jeanine Pirro on her Fox show, Saturday night, “…doing a great job on that, so far!”

The site has been plagued by problems such as “crashing under heavy user traffic, failing to let customers register or purchase plans and reportedly logging inaccurate information.” 

Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy (R-PA) told Reuters, “It’s not just a bumpy rollout. We’re crossing a bridge with a warning sign that says: BRIDGE OUT. We’ll be trying to get people from the administration to tell us whether they were pretending everything was OK or was there an internal cover-up or did they just not know?”

Fox News reports that members of the Committee began focusing on Secretary Sebelius after she went on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” last week to talk about the website.

“Secretary Sebelius had time for Jon Stewart, and we expect her to have time for Congress,” Committee Chairman Fred Upton said.

The committee is scheduled to hold a hearing Thursday that will focus on whether officials involved with the site “Didn’t Know or Didn’t Disclose” problems. And the committee has for the third time in the past two days publicly called upon the administration to send witnesses to Capitol Hill to provide answers.

The requests, which have so far been rejected, include a letter Thursday directly to Secretary Sebelius.

Saturday, Speaker of the House John Boehner kept up the pressure on Twitter:

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