President Obama was remarkably unforthcoming regarding the nature of the technical issues that continue to plague Healthcare.gov three weeks after it opened for business. In his Rose Garden rally today — the White House has posted the transcript here — Obama professed to want everybody “to understand the nature of the problem.” What is the nature of the problem? He didn’t actually say anything more than that “we’re working out the kinks in the system.” What were once glitches are now kinks.
Obama continues to imply that the problem is one of popularity or unanticipated traffic to the site requiring a “boost” in “capacity.” He has brought in a team to dial the knobs to 11. He pretends not to have heard that the problem is one of design and architecture.
But that’s not all. According to Obama, we are part of the problem. We have met the enemy and he is us: “Part of the challenge here is that a lot of people may not remember what it’s like to buy insurance the traditional way.” That’s a temporary problem. Come January 1, we won’t remember what it’s like to get health care in the traditional way either.
And has he got a deal for you. According to Obama, the health care insurance on offer comes at a great price. If you take Obama’s shtick at face value, you’d have to conclude that he’s not keeping up with the news. He hasn’t heard anything about Obamacare sticker shock. Either that or he thinks you’re really, really stupid.
If I may use “turtles” as a euphemism for “falsehoods,” we can say that with Obama it’s turtles all the way down.
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