Obama WON'T fire Sebelius for Obamacare cock-up – even after she admitted HE is responsible

'The president has complete confidence in Secretary Sebelius,' said a White House spokesman
The HHS chief has faced brutal questions from Congress, including demands for Obamacare waivers and her resignation
Obama praised Romneycare for enrolling 36,000 in Massachusetts in 1 year, a pace that would leave Obamacare more than 5 MILLION short
'The web site is too slow, too many people have gotten stuck and I'm not happy about it,' he admitted
Obama blamed 'cut-rate plans' sold by 'bad apple insurers' for reports that millions are now losing coverage because of the Affordable Care Act
Global warming activists interrupted the speech twice, heckling the president about the Keystone XL pipeline

By David Martosko, U.s. Political Editor

PUBLISHED: 14:56 EST, 30 October 2013 | UPDATED: 10:16 EST, 31 October 2013

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President Obama said Wednesday that he has 'complete confidence' in Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, just hours after she took a beating during a congressional hearing over the disastrous Obamacare website.

His defense of Sebelius came after she was forced to concede on Capitol Hill that Obama, not she, was ultimately responsible for the Affordable Care Act's rocky launch.

'The president has complete confidence in Secretary Sebelius,' White House Deputy Press Secretary Joshua Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to the president's speech in Boston, where he offered full-throated oratory on the importance of his signature health insurance overhaul.

Earnest focused on Sebelius' early apology rather than on her later concession that the buck stops in the Oval Office.

She 'took responsibility for many of the problems that are evident with the website, but she also deserves credit for the other aspects of the Affordable Care Act implementation that have gone well,' he said.

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The embattled face of the health insurance overhaul law and its disastrous Internet enrollment platform had said in her opening statement, 'You deserve better. I apologize.'

But later during her testimony Wednesday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Sebelius was muscled into sharing blame for the glitch-prone rollout with her boss in the White House.

Mississippi Republican Rep. Gregg Harper pressed her on who is ultimately to blame for a website that wasn't adequately tested before its October 1 launch, and crashed Wednesday morning, rendering it out of service during most of Sebelius' 3-1/2 hour grilling.

'The president ultimately is responsible,' Harper insisted. 'While I think it’s great that you’re a team player and you’re taking responsibility, it is the president’s ultimate responsibility, correct?'

'Uh, whatever,' she sniped while shaking her head. 'Yes, he is the president. He is responsible for government programs.'

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Less than five hours later, Obama proudly drew parallels between his Obamacare program and former Gov. Romney's, begun seven years ago in Boston.

'There were early problems to solve,' when Romney reformed health insurance programs there, he said, just as his program's rollout has been plagued with poor management, technical failures and organizational snafus.

'There were changes that had to be made.'

And of his own program, he admitted, 'The web site is too slow, too many people have gotten stuck and I'm not happy about it.'

Obama recalled happily how 36,000 Massachussets citizens signed up for Romney care in the first year, a pace that would leave Obamacare short by millions of taxpayers

Adoring throng: A crowd estimated at 800 clapped and cheered for Obama as he reinforced his vision of a government-managed health insurance market

Interruption: Protesters yelled in unison about the Keystone XL pipeline as Obama quipped that they were at the wrong rally

'Enrollment was extremely slow,' Obama recalled of Romney's experiment in government management of the insurance market.

'Within a month only about a hundred people had signed up. ... by the end of the year, 36,000 people had signed up.'

Massachusetts comprises 2.1 per cent of the American population; at the same rate, the Obamacare program would only have 1.7 million new insurance enrollees by October 1, 2014.

Administration officials have said they need 7 million to sign up – more than four times as many – in order for the Affordable Care Act's books to balance as its strains to cover health care costs of the elderly and chronically ill.

Still, Obama claimed of Massachusetts, 'The vast majority of its citizens are happy with their coverage.'

'I'm confident this plan will work because the Massachusetts model has shown that it works,' he said repeatedly to wild applause from an estimated 800 partisans.

Obama was interrupted twice by screaming protesters upset about the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. 'That is the wrong rally,' he quipped, saying 'we had the climate change rally back in the summer.'

Campaigner-in-chief: Obama kissed babies and even signed an 'I (heart) Obamacare' cast as he greeted his supporters

Friendly faces: Obama is mobbed by supporters after his speech in which he said reforming healthcare was a 'no-brainer'

Responding to complaints that insurers are dropping millions of Americans from their coverage, he declared that those policies were 'cut-rate plans' sold by 'bad apple insurers' who weren't offering benefits in line with what the Obamacare law requires.

His GOP opponents have highlighted dozens of examples of constituents receiving cancellation letters, many of which cite the Affordable Care Act as the reason policies are being discontinued.

One member of Congress brought his own such letter to a hearing on Wednesday.

But 'Americans would be better off,' Obama jabbed, if Republicans put as much energy into helping the Affordable Care Act succeed nationally as they put into criticizing it.

Romneycare is a statewide plan, instituted by Obama's one-time Republican election foe Mitt Romney when he was governor of Massachusetts, that formed part of the template the president used when his team formulated the Affordable Care Act.

The hearing was rife with stories about taxpayers who have lost their medical coverage because of new requirements forced on insurance companies by the Obamacare law, and included a contentious exchange in which Sebelius said she wouldn't – or couldn't – buy health insurance through the government's insurance exchanges herself.

'Why aren't you losing your insurance?” Colorado Republican Rep. Cory Gardne demanded. 'Why won’t you go into this exchange?'

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius apologized to a congressional committee for wasting Americans' time as they tried and failed to use the crippled Obamacare website

The most hated woman in America? Sebelius is staying put, said Obama's aide, despite the woeful performance of the program she's leading

'I think it’s illegal for me,' she replied, citing the employer-sponsored insurance she already enjoys as a federal government employee.

She later said she would 'gladly join the exchange' if she weren't already covered.

'You can decide to drop the coverage from your employer,' Gardner insisted. 'You have the choice to decide not to choose [it].'

Healthcare.gov – when it's up and running – advises people in Sebelius' position, however, that 'f you’d like to explore Marketplace coverage options you can.' She would, however, be required to forgo taxpayers' contribution toward her coverage.

As a 65-year-old who is enrolled in Medicare Part A, Sebelius could also reject that coverage if she chose to, relying solely on exchange-driven insurance as millions of Americans are contemplating as they find policy cancellation notices in their mailboxes.

That, though, would be a symbolic and impractical choice.

Obama will follow his health insurance speech with an appearance at a Democratic fundraiser on Wednesday night, but will return to Washington without seeing the sixth game of the World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals.

The president, Earnest reminded reporters, is a Chicago White Sox fan.

'I am well aware that a presidential visit is not the biggest thing going on today in Boston,' the president said during his speech. 'I promise we will be done here in time for everybody here to head over to Fenway.'

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nlowen1, New Orleans, 3 hours ago

it's amazing that anyone in the Obama administration still has their jobs considering they're all incompetent....

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KG, San Diego, United States, 4 hours ago

Don¿t you know? There are no consequences in Obamaland! Isnt it grand!

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JackinFtLaud, Davie_Florida, United States, 6 hours ago

Barrycare will be tied around the liberals necks forever,. :)

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insertnamehere, FL USA, 6 hours ago

This great national nightmare has to end soon.

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Miked, Bucks, 7 hours ago

How can we have affordable government when POTUS decides that its ok to waste money cos you can just borrow more, print more ... if the rest of the world tires of the UPS and downs caused by the American economy is just too much to bear and start selling treasury bonds and choosing another international currency as standard, lets see if Obama's business model still can survive (didn't say its working). He even rips off his own customers by lying about grandfather policies. He is so totally not the POTUS of his first term. Impeach.