Kathleen Sebelius doesn’t really need to be there

By
John Tomasic
-

 
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Obamacare rollout was a disaster. Republican members of the House, who have held up the healthcare reform legislation-become-law for five years and two-and-a-half election cycles as the thing that could swallow democracy and freedom, have relished every second the federal healthcare.gov site has stalled and spun.

Because they can’t call the President before them, they have tried to make Health and Human Secretary Kathleen Sebelius the avatar of the troubled website in a series of hearings that have been a circus of schadenfreude and often only semi-coherent accusations and conspiracy theories.

Illinois Rep. John Shimkus took a chapter from Colorado Rep. Cory Gardner in the latest round of hearings and railed at the Secretary. He didn’t let Sebelius speak because his questions weren’t really questions. At one point, sputtering, he likened speaking to Sebelius to speaking to the dictator of North Korea.

When Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner last week said his caucus needed to learn how to speak to women, maybe it was because he was watching these hearings.

Edit note: The original version of this post referred to “Katherine” instead of “Kathleen” Sebelius. We apologize to the Secretary and thank the Cory Gardner staff for the tip. We’ve fact checked Gardner staff material to great effect over the years. We appreciate the return favor.

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4 COMMENTS

  1. It is clear the badgering tactics of Republicans like John Shimkus, Corey Gardner, and Michael Burgess are the last ditch attempts of Republican ineptness and desperation to derail the Affordable Care Act. They’re running on empty and know it. Hence the amplified rhetoric beating their gums over nothing and making fools of themselves in the process.

  2. Anyone on the republican side of things needs to ask just WHAT it is that the republicans offer to this country. Do they have any coherent plans for actually RUNNING the country? Not one, from what I can see. All they want to do is to steal everything you have, give it to themselves and then complain that you don’t have more they can steal as well, and how it’s all YOUR fault.

    What do they actually offer anyone but themselves? They essentially want to abandon everyone to the whims of the rich and big business. And we all know how much conscience either of those two groups have, NONE.

    They want to repeal the ACA, but what is their replacement? Repeal and replace, but WHAT is THEIR plan? Actually, the ACA IS their plan, but somehow now they are all dead set against it. What ELSE do they offer? NOTHING. They want to go back to where we were, when every condition from acne on up is a reason for the insurance industry to back out of their OBLIGATIONS, and that’s just FINE with the republicans.

    They want to make sure you have NO job, and then cut unemployment because you’re just too damned lazy to go get one. They want to cut your wages to third world levels,and then complain that you are asking for help to feed your children.

    Republicans have nothing to offer but the destruction of everything we have now, so they can rebuild it using YOUR money and claim ownership for themselves afterwards while charging you to use it. Is this REALLY what this country is supposed to stand for? Because it is EXACTLY what the republican party stands for, whether they will admit it in public or not.

    Look at their ACTIONS and tell me I’m wrong. I don’t think anyone can, honestly, at least.

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