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HealthCare.gov: How Political Fear Was Pitted Against Technical Needs
Wa Po ^ | 10/2/13 | Amy Goldstein and Juliet Eilperin

Posted on 11/02/2013 9:08:06 PM PDT by Lmo56

In May 2010, two months after the Affordable Care Act squeaked through Congress, President Obama’s top economic aides were getting worried. Larry Summers, director of the White House’s National Economic Council, and Peter Orzag, head of the Office of Management and Budget, had just received a pointed four-page memo from a trusted outside health adviser. It warned that no one in the administration was “up to the task” of overseeing the construction of an insurance exchange and other intricacies of translating the 2,000-page statute into reality.

Summers, Orzag and their staffs agreed. For weeks that spring, a tug of war played out inside the White House, according to five people familiar with the episode. On one side, members of the economic team and Obama health-care adviser Zeke Emanuel lobbied for the president to appoint an outside health reform “czar” with expertise in business, insurance and technology. On the other, the president’s top health aides — who had shepherded the legislation through its tortuous path on Capitol Hill and knew its every detail — argued that they could handle the job.

In the end, the economic team never had a chance: The president had already made up his mind, according to a White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to be candid. Obama wanted his health policy team — led by Nancy-Ann De­Parle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform — to be in charge of the law’s arduous implementation. Since the day the bill became law, the official said, the president believed that “if you were to design a person in the lab to implement health care, it would be Nancy-Ann.”

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Government
KEYWORDS: fearfuldems; healthcaredotgov; obamacare; rinocare
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Hubris: Anatomy Of A Failure ...

FYI: Interesting to note Wa Po going after this like a Pit Bull on a ham bone - must be the Jeff Bezos Factor ...

1 posted on 11/02/2013 9:08:06 PM PDT by Lmo56
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To: Lmo56

Bob: “Hey Jim, did you hear about the Obama administration scandal?,
Jim: “You mean the Mexican gun running?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “You mean SEAL Team 6?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “Obama saying the avg family would save $2,500 on their premiums?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “Forcing businesses to violate their religious beliefs by paying for drugs that abort the unborn?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “Violating the rights and sanctity of our Churches?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “Spending $634 million on a website that doesn’t work?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “Obama calling for an increase in our debt when he lambasted Bush for the very same thing?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “Obama having NSA spy on 124 Billion Phone Calls in One Month?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “Saddling our kids with $17 trillion in debt of which they can never get out of and will not have as good a life as we have?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “Bailing out Detroit after decades of corrupt Democratic management?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “You mean the State Dept. lying about Benghazi?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “You mean voter fraud?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “Intentionally trying to hurt Americans during the sequester?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “Blocking veterans who secured our freedoms from their monuments but giving the green light for Illegals to use Monument Mall?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “Denying school kids the ability to tour the White House but still spending lavishly on his parties?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “You mean Obama saying we can keep our insurance and doctors if we wanted to?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “You mean the military not getting their votes counted?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “The NSA monitoring foreign diplomats?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “You mean the use of drones in our own country without the benefit of the law?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “Giving 123 Technologies $300 Million and right after it declared bankruptcy and was sold to the Chinese?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “You mean the president arming the Muslim Brotherhood?”
Bob: “No the other one:.
Jim: “The IRS targeting conservatives?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “The DOJ spying on the press?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “Sebelius shaking down health insurance executives?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “You mean Obama spending $3.7 Trillion on Welfare Over Last 5 Years”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “Giving SOLYNDRA $500 MILLION DOLLARS and 3 months later they declared bankruptcy and then the Chinese bought it?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “The NSA monitoring our phone calls, emails and everything else?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “Millions of Americans losing their health care coverage?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “Forcing Americans to include coverage in their insurance policies of items they do not want?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “Ordering the release of nearly 10,000 illegal immigrants from jails and prisons, and falsely blaming the sequester?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “Denying Arizona the right to protect its borders?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “Providing weapons to Syrian rebels many of whom apparently are Al Queda”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “The president’s repeated violation of the law requiring him to submit a budget no later than the first Monday in February?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “The 2012 vote where 115% of all registered voters in some counties voted 100% for Obama?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “The president’s unconstitutional recess appointments in an attempt to circumvent the Senate’s advise-and-consent role?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “The State Department interfering with an Inspector General investigation on departmental sexual misconduct?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “Clinton, the IRS, Clapper and Holder all lying to Congress?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “The President using nearly $1 trillion dollars of stimulus money to fund his cronies?”
Bob: “No, the other one”
Jim: “You mean Fast & Furious?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “I give up! ...Oh wait, I think I got it! You mean that 65 million low-information voters who don’t pay taxes and get free stuff from taxpayers and stuck us again with the most pandering, corrupt administration in American history?”
Bob: “THAT’S THE ONE!”


2 posted on 11/02/2013 9:14:36 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (Ted Cruz/Sarah Palin 2016)
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To: Lmo56

3 posted on 11/02/2013 9:15:07 PM PDT by LyinLibs (If victims of islam were more "islamophobic," maybe they'd still be alive.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Obama dressed up as the President for the WH Halloween Party - but NOBODY believed him when they saw him ...
4 posted on 11/02/2013 9:17:20 PM PDT by Lmo56 (If ya wanna run with the big dawgs - ya gotta learn to piss in the tall grass ...)
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To: Lmo56; ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas; stephenjohnbanker; Gilbo_3; NFHale; Impy; Liz; ...
Really a good write!

They were running the biggest start-up in the world, and they didn’t have anyone who had run a start-up, or even run a business,” said David Cutler, a Harvard professor and health adviser to Obama’s 2008 campaign, who was not the individual who provided the memo to The Washington Post but confirmed he was the author. “It’s very hard to think of a situation where the people best at getting legislation passed are best at implementing it. They are a different set of skills.
The White House’s leadership of the immense project — building new health insurance marketplaces for an estimated 24 million Americans without coverage — is one of several key reasons that the president’s signature domestic policy achievement has become a self-inflicted injury for the administration.”

5 posted on 11/02/2013 9:17:33 PM PDT by sickoflibs (To GOP : Any path to US Citizenship IS putting them ahead in line. Stop lying about your position)
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To: Lmo56
"HealthCare.gov: How Political Fear Was Pitted Against Technical Needs"

..... Notice how "political fear" is the thing that Washington is worried about ...... and not the personal economic fear that the citizenry of this country will be embroiled in over the next few months and years. The citizens are about to be broadsided by large increases in their expenditures in this failing economy which could well lead to their own personal economic collapse ..... and cold hearted Washington is only concerned about the political ramifications of the effects of the Affordable Healthcare act.

6 posted on 11/02/2013 9:24:03 PM PDT by R_Kangel ( "A Nation of Sheep ..... Will Beget ..... a Nation Ruled by Wolves.")
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To: Lmo56

obama says do something and everyone bows down to him the way he bowed to the Saudi Prince. I have a feeling lots of people know the NSA can make you guilty of anything they want.


7 posted on 11/02/2013 9:25:08 PM PDT by VerySadAmerican (".....Barrack, and the horse Mohammed rode in on.")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Absolutely great! Thanks!


8 posted on 11/02/2013 9:25:26 PM PDT by DefeatCorruption
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To: Lmo56
I got one of the first ten comments in.

Comrades, so-called "glitch problem" at brand new website of National Socialist healthcare rationing system is result of deliberate sabotage by "tea party" wreckers. These reactionary running dogs are the puppets of the capitalist so-called "free market" insurance monopolies, desperate to delay start of National Socialist "single payer" system, as laid out by Dear Leader Obama to AFL-CIO in history-making speech of 2003. This history-making speech when Dear Leader announced plan to "transition" from so-called "free market" health system of capitalist exploiters, to new system of equal fairness to all good comrades, like in best days of former Soviet Union, and today in worker's paradise Cuba, and People's Democratic Republic Korea.

Soon National Socialist health rationing system will be smashing records like former Leningrad Red Star Locomotive Factory. Never-stopping commissars shall working around clock be to find and liquidate medical coverage of last dying-hard reactionaries, using most modern computers at ACA-NSA-IRS data hub fusion centers. Then all good comrades will surely reject "old thinking" and outdated capitalist ideas of so-called "liberty" and "free choice." In words of Dear Leader Obama, "Nobody believes more firmly than me that all citizens are equal. I would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where would we be?"

9 posted on 11/02/2013 9:29:53 PM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: Lmo56
The goal of 0bamacare was to get everyone kicked off their health care plans. This will not be reversed.

The goal of the 0bamacare website was to fail, thus creating DESPERATE VICTIMS who readily accept the government fix called 'Single Payer' (or die).

10 posted on 11/02/2013 9:30:53 PM PDT by Obama_Is_Sabotaging_America (If Americans were as concerned for their country as Egyptians are, Obama would be ousted!)
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To: Lmo56; NormsRevenge; Marine_Uncle; SunkenCiv; blam; Grampa Dave; SierraWasp; TigersEye; ...
This is going to be a classic example for Project Managers of HOW Very Large Projects go BAD<>>>BAD>>>>BAD!
11 posted on 11/02/2013 9:32:04 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
100%!!!
12 posted on 11/02/2013 9:32:15 PM PDT by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -vvv- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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To: Lmo56

13 posted on 11/02/2013 9:33:06 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Obamacare: You can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.)
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To: ShadowAce

IT Ping!


14 posted on 11/02/2013 9:33:50 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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To: Lmo56
The White House’s leadership of the immense project — building new health insurance marketplaces for an estimated 24 million Americans without coverage —...

What's this?

Didn't we start out with "50 million Americans without health insurance"?

Then, it was 45 million. Then 40.

Now, it's only 24 million?

Doesn't this mean that the administration turned the whole health care industry on its head, then turned it inside out, merely to satisfy the health insurance needs of 24 million people?

Why the hell didn't we just buy them all a bare bones policy...???!!!

15 posted on 11/02/2013 9:35:51 PM PDT by okie01 (The Mainstream Media: Ignorance On Parade)
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To: Lmo56

16 posted on 11/02/2013 9:36:04 PM PDT by JPG (Yes We Can morphs into Make It Hurt.)
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To: Lmo56
... the president believed that “if you were to design a person in the lab to implement health care, it would be Nancy-Ann.”

0bama is the kind of person who would think about constructing human beings in laboratories.

17 posted on 11/02/2013 9:42:52 PM PDT by TigersEye (Stupid is a Progressive disease.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Amazing!


18 posted on 11/02/2013 9:43:07 PM PDT by ViLaLuz (2 Chronicles 7:14)
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To: sickoflibs

The whole point of the article is to blame the Republicans, nothing less. The typical, brain-dead, lockstep, Obamanation syncophants will nod in agreement. “Yup, those evil Republicans — it’s all their fault”. The fact that the MAJORITY of the population STILL doesn’t want it just doesn’t matter to these egotistical bastards.

Hey, Democrats: you are NOT smart enough to know how to run the world, so find a way out of your delusion before you screw it up so completely that the grownups can’t fix it.

And Republicans: grow a pair and put a stop to this insanity or get out of the way and let the Tea Party do it.

Sheesh!


19 posted on 11/02/2013 9:45:29 PM PDT by SonAboveAnItch
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To: Lmo56
So many interesting twists and turns on the road to fascism.

Who cares about the fascists' cute little parlor games?

I want to know how to destroy their movement.

20 posted on 11/02/2013 9:47:48 PM PDT by St_Thomas_Aquinas ( Isaiah 22:22, Matthew 16:19, Revelation 3:7)
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