Don Berwick......... health care czar. Is he not the real boss responsible and not simple sebelious?
Posted on 10/30/2013 5:31:47 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
An agitated President Obama has expressed frustration to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius about the faulty ObamaCare enrollment website.
A visibly annoyed Obama behind closed doors has made clear to Sebelius that it’s her responsibility to fix what has become an unwanted second-term blunder, according to senior administration officials.
White House officials say the strong words from Obama don’t mean Sebelius is necessarily in the doghouse but that she’s responsible for fixing the problem.
In the words of one senior administration official, “She’s in a tough spot. She’s on the hook.”
Sebelius is scheduled to appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday amid a sea of negative press.
She has been lambasted by Republicans and even parodied in a “Saturday Night Live” opening sketch.
Senior officials maintain that Obama is sticking with Sebelius.
“She has his full support,” White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said in an interview.
“They have a good relationship, one of mutual respect,” which has “developed over time,” Jarrett said.
Obama has a reputation for sticking by Cabinet officials who get in trouble.
When Attorney General Eric Holder was held in contempt by the House for his role in the “Fast and Furious” gun tracking controversy, Obama defended him. He did so again when Holder was criticized for secretly subpoenaing The Associated Press’s phone records.
Those close to Obama say the president is taking the long view and feels that Sebelius is also responsible for positive aspects of the law that have gone well.
“The president isn’t looking for a scalp to win the news cycle,” one senior administration official said.
One former senior administration official added: “The way he sees it is, ‘Does this one problem negate four or five years of good work?’ ”
“It speaks to his overall governing philosophy, which is to play the long game, the one people will remember,” the former official added. “While he knows this is a major problem, he knows it can be a bit of an overreaction.”
Whether mounting criticism and pressure on Sebelius changes that calculation remains to be seen.
“If Secretary Sebelius worked for a private company, she would have been done weeks ago,” said Kirsten Kukowski, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, which has set up a “Fire Sebelius” movement.
One problem with sacking Sebelius is that it would likely be difficult to get a new Health and Human Services secretary confirmed by the Senate.
Republican strategist Ron Bonjean surmised that the White House would “probably never get another replacement through Senate confirmation.”
“The White House strategy is to use Sebelius as a political piñata and a symbol of incompetence while they desperately try to conduct damage control and fix the problems of Obama-Care,” he said.
Obama has kept a good working relationship with Sebelius, who he courted for his administration because of her “outstanding” reputation as Kansas’s insurance commissioner.
“I remember she was high on his list for people he wanted to recruit in the administration,” one senior administration official said, adding that she had her own credentials in the field.
He is very much aware that Sebelius — a female governor from a red state — took a risk to support him early on in his heated primary battle with Hillary Clinton in 2008.
Those close to the president recall it being a bold move and one that meant a lot to Obama.
“I think he is loyal by nature,” Jarrett said. “He is loyal to all the people who have been a part of his team.”
But these days, with no end in sight to the website’s issues, Obama has been anything but shy about the way he feels. And he has spent considerable time with Sebelius—who has regularly been in the West Wing — and others in meetings in trying to fix the problem.
“His management style isn’t to berate people,” one senior administration official said. “It’s to make people do better. It’s not just directed at Kathleen; it’s directed at everybody.”
He had made clear, according to aides, that he would like Sebelius to stay on while the website issues are resolved.
“She and the team will get this done,” one senior administration official said, without predicting how long that might take.
Don Berwick......... health care czar. Is he not the real boss responsible and not simple sebelious?
He doesn’t want it fixed.
The websites are crap by design.
I'm having difficulty with this sentence. How in tarnation can the author know that Obama is visibly annoyed when she can't see him?
What you said, that’s what I am thinking is the reality of it all.
Yeah, after all he's not the President who has been in charge of every facet of implementing his signature legislative accomplishment... he's just some guy that wandered in off the street today and discovered this strange program called "Obamacare" that's not working right. Now he's mad as hell and is going to fix it.
“...visibly annoyed.”
Well, duh...
They already have the posters printed:
Obama? Agitated?? Cant be. He simply has to smile and say: "Let it be done". And it shall be done. Ask NBC, if you don't believe me.
1. He wasn’t annoyed.
2. He doesn’t want it fixed.
3. He just wants to buy time to install socialized medicine.
There. Article fixed.
Total Bull Sh*t! never happened. Everything is going according to plan. US will be destroyed before OBlackula leaves office,……if he ever does!
Clown Prince nobama is only annoyed because it is becoming obvious too early that everything he says is a lie. It is intentional that nobamacare is destructive, as is everything else his Clown Car administration does. They got the water boiling too quickly. That is his regret.
President Petulant is upset. Oh my!
She has to do an in-depth analysis of what went wrong, come up with a new design, write a comprehensive test plan, re-write the code, and do it all in one week. Great idea. Only genius Obama could have thought of that.
I have the “fix”. Vote EVERY DemocRAT out of office in 2014, 2016 and 2018 (and throw in the RINOs for good measure)!
JUST FIX IT
The People said: Don't Bring Your Lies 'round Here
Don't Wanna See Your Face, You Better Disappear
The Fire's In Their Eyes And Their Words Are Really Clear
So FIX IT, Just FIX ITYou Better Run, You Better Get Out While You Can
Don't Wanna See More Tears, You're Not A Macho Man
If You Wanna See What's Tough, We'll Make It So You Can
So FIX IT, Just FIX ITJust FIX IT, FIX IT, FIX IT, FIX IT
No One Wants To Be Defeated
But You Brought On This Fight
Don't Matter What You Say
You Know That You're Not RightJust FIX IT, FIX IT
Just FIX IT, FIX IT
Just FIX IT, FIX IT
Just FIX IT, FIX ITThey're Out To Get You Now, It's Time For You To Scram
You're Just A Nancy Boy, But Wanna Be A Man
If You Wanna Stay Alive, Better Get Out While You Can
So FIX IT, Just FIX ITYou Try To Pretend That You're Not Really Scared
But You're Playin' With Your Life, This Ain't No Truth Or Dare
They'll Tar And Feather You,
And Ride You On A Rail
So FIX IT, Just FIX ITJust FIX IT, FIX IT, FIX IT, FIX IT
No One Wants To Be Defeated
But You Brought On This Fight
Don't Matter What You Say
You Know That You're Not RightJust FIX IT, FIX IT
Just FIX IT, FIX IT
Just FIX IT, FIX IT
Just FIX IT, FIX ITJust FIX IT !!!
Lordy. I could have gone forever without that image. Lol
————She has to do an in-depth analysis——
easy as pie...... call the Verizon CEO, declare it Verizon’s fault.
that’s what she did
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