The media, specifically MSNBC, believe the White House is openly lying to them about not having the numbers on those who have enrolled for ObamaCare. Monday on Morning Joe, the AP’s Julie Pace said that on a daily basis she is being told by the Obama administration that “we don’t have the number yet.” A few sentences later, Pace reveals that she knows the administration is lying to her, “We know that they have these numbers.” Joe Scarborough and Mike Barnicle agreed with her.
Rather than being outraged over being lied to, though, Pace seemed amused by the whole thing.
This is a question that comes up literally every day at the White House; at the daily briefing, it comes up with other conversations I have with administration officials every day. And every day they tell us, ‘We don’t have that number yet. We’re going to provide the first enrollment numbers in mid-November.’ Really what they are trying to do at this point is that they are trying to be selectively transparent. They’re telling us numbers that make the system look good: that 19 million people have looked at healthcare.gov since the site opened up to the public; they say that about a half-million people have actually gotten through the application process… That’s about as detailed as we’ve gotten at this point .
The enrollment figures, they say ‘Oh reporters you’re just obsessed with this enrollment figure.’ Well, that’s because enrollment figures are the only things that will tell us if [ObamaCare] is going to work. …
Part of what’s been so frustrating about this as a reporter is that we know that they have these numbers. It’s not as if they have to wait for some tech person off in some far off place to send them the data. They’re getting these numbers in. And that’s what’s been so frustrating.
This is the most interesting part:
We’ll see if the pressure starts to mount and if we get to a point where the administration feels they need to present use with more data before mid-November. You can assume, though, that the number is fairly low. If you have a half-million people who have gotten the application finished, that means the enrollment number is likely far less than that.
“We’ll see if pressure starts to mount?”
Pace is the AP’s White House correspondent. She sits in the daily briefing every day. She certainly can’t be alone in knowing the White House is lying to her about not having these numbers. The pressure can only come from them.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
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