Every time I see a question similar to this, I think about GEN McChrystal. His career was prematurely ended (or his retirement prematurely approved) for making rather innocuous statements to Michael Hastings from Rolling Stone. McChrystal did not fail in his stated mission, he was actually very successful in his endeavors. Yet, he showed some level of disrespect for the administration and was quickly summoned to the White House and relieved of command. The quotes were:

1. Obama “didn’t seem very engaged”
2. National Security Advisor Jim Jones is a “clown”
3. Karl Eikenberry is covering his “flank”
4. Biden or “bite me”
5. “Richard Holbrooke is like a wounded animal”

Several members of the current administration has been at the helm of disaster. Sebelius is just the latest. Hillary Clinton was probably most egregious with Benghazi. At least she accepted some amount of responsibility and resigned (although, probably to save herself for a future election). Eric Holder is just an out right criminal–in charge of law enforcement.

There has been a complete lack of accountability or transparency from this administration. It has been one disaster after another; well hidden by the very biased mainstream media.

@djc91ua, Damien let me ask you a question, if you were working for a company that hired you to create a website for them and after 3 years and a truckload of money, what you came up with didn’t work, is it reasonable that you would be fired?

Of course.

To me there are only 2 valid reasons she hasn’t been fired. The first, she knows too much for obama to fire her. She could tell what she knows and some of it might actually stick to him and he won’t be able to blame someone else or explain it away.

The second and most probable, is that the website is working exactly the way obama wants it to be working. I can’t really say yet, that he wants it to fail or not. He may have a totally different agenda and this is part of it.

Because he has been so deceitful since he gained office, I really don’t know what he is capable of.

Good question. Would like to hear what others have to say.

Where where you calling for the DoD resignations for late and over budget fighter planes? I.e. F35

@djc91ua
@jagsted
@epharmd, What???

John, we want to discuss your issues with you but you need to explain what you are talking about and show some research so we can join in.

The F35 Joint Strike Fighter program is a $1.5T program to procure and maintain 2,457 aircraft (3 models; one for each Air Force, Navy, and USMC). That is $618B per plane over the life cycle of 50 years (procurement, maintenance, and operation). It has had some typical contract and tech problems. The DoD is doing a fair job of holding Lockheed Martin accountable for the overruns. This is really, very typical of most large procurements. And, this most certainly is a necessary replacement of the severely aged and overused fleet.

Most of the F35’s features are classified, but i have seen some of their capabilities first hand. They are amazing and the pilots LOVE them.

If you have not seen the Pentagon wars, this link is not only funny, but show the scope creep and a not so far off representation of what happens. Things are better now, but Congress is really the ones that keeps the life cycles going, even when equipment is no longer needed… because no one want to let the employees go in their districts. I show this clip in my Project Management classes.

Also attached is the GAO report on the F35 program.

http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/653858.pdf

@djc91ua
@epharmd
@jagsted, Thanks for picking up John’s slack. My question is there anybody that doesn’t know that the government wastes money?

We have allowed the government to become so big that they spend uncontrollably and have no consequences, so they care little about what we as citizens say.

Do we need to keep a well armed and trained military? Yes. Do we need to spend billions upon billions to accomplish this. No. We need to take the business angle at this and see what they do to keep costs down and in a realistic range while still getting the products we need to defend our country.

If John had just expressed what he was talking about he probably would have found that we were in agreement on this.

I’m just a dumb old country boy, I didn’t know anything about this particular incident. A person can’t know everything about everything.

Thanks again.

I completely agree with Mr. Riggs.
After being given years and much more budget then most other functioning department in our government you fail Epically. Not only should she be embarrassed for this, she should be relieved of her position.

As a leader of her Department she is responsible for getting with the Software originators and having them fix the issue or pay the price for providing a faulty product. This is a problem government wide. As i see this quite often in the DOD. The person responsible for looking into credentials for the contractors considered for the job required fail miserably or do not put a fail clause in the contract for business.
Bottom line before hiring contractors in our government: Complete the job on time in the manner described or NO PAYMENT. Or payment is to be returned with interest.

This is Kathleen’s job to assure these things are happening. She failed to do so. She should be fired.

@cookiesi12 @jlriggs57aol-com @jagsted @epharmd @djc91ua

I personally do not think Kathleen Sebelius should be fired at this point. I think President Obama is responsible. I think its ridiculous that all of these government officials are shifting the blame onto the programmers. I highly doubt the programmers of Healthcare.gov failed to inform them that the site wasn’t ready. I assume the President and his adminstration were more worried about the political fall out of not launching on time. This whole thing is a complete mess. The President needs to take responsibility for THIS. It is his signature piece of legislation, if he wasn’t overseeing with a microscope then he is at fault. So either he knew, and he is at fault, or he didnt know and he is at fault. I am tired of this guy getting away with everything under the sun. TAKE RESPONSIBILITY.

Healthcare.gov is going to fail. Only 6 people signed up on day one. That is pathetic. In order for the healthcare exchanges to remain affordable they need healthy inexpensive people to sign up and subsidize the unhealthy expensive people. If were getting these dismal numbers now, there is no chance of creating a system that works.

@cookiesi12, @jagsted, @epharmd, @djc91ua,

@twocents, obama is responsible, I will go along with that 100%. He should be fired, if the senate wasn’t run by the democrats, that would already be a part of history. However, if I were obama (can’t believe I just said that) before I went down, Sebelius would be out the door ahead of me.

So I will stand by what I said. Sebelius should be fired, and will add, so should obama.

For the record, socialized medicine doesn’t work, no matter what you do. It will always fail.

This is clip of Sebelius fumbling to answer whether Obama is ultimately responsible for the Healthcare.gov failure. I am not a conspiracy theorist, but I could not help to think that she was feeling some external pressure to avoid answering that question candidly.

@jagsted Your post is precocious:

Most of the features of Obamacare plans are transparent. I have seen some of their capabilities first hand. They are amazing and patients with pre-existing conditions love them.

Some pearls of wisdom from the GOA on the F-35 that you shared:
“The F-35 still faces considerable challenges and risks.”
“The costs of the F-35 fleet have been deemed unaffordable by DoD”
“Software integration and test will be challenging”
“The program continues to incur financial risk from its plan”

So you seem to be a bit of a hypocrite to suggest that this is “very typical of most large procurements”. Then suggesting that the HHS secretary should resign based on HHS procurement. Have some cajones and also call of the dbags that oversee this boondoggle to resign. Then you might have an ounce of credibility.

@jagsted You post is precious:

Most of the features of the ACA aka Obamacare plans are transparent. I have seen some of their capabilities first hand. They are amazing and patients with pre-existing conditions love them.

Some pearls of wisdom from the GOA on the F-35:
“The F-35 still faces considerable challenges and risks.”
“The costs of the F-35 fleet have been deemed unaffordable by DoD”
“Software integration and test will be challenging”
“The program continues to incur financial risk from its plan”

So you seem to be a bit of a hypocrite to suggest that this is “very typical of most large procurements”. Then suggesting that the HHS secretary should resign. Have some cajones and also call for the dbags that oversee this boondoggle to resign. Then you might have an ounce of credibility.

No, Ms. Sebelius should not be fired (yet).

why not? A.) Very few people working for the fed government at that level
get fired. weak excuse, but why start firing people now?

B.) The larger issue for me is the company (companies?) who created the
website should not be paid in full. because obviously their work stinks.
I’d like to know if they are charging us to _fix_ the website. if they are, that also
stinks and Sebelius needs to make them fix it on their dime.

If she does not do this, and problems with the website continue 3-4 months from now, then she should be fired.

@jagsted There is definitely an accountability with some members of this administration. Eric Holder still has to explain his involvement in the fast and furious scandal. There are too many unanswered questions.

@jlriggs57aol-com I don’t know if Obama wants his “crowning legislative achievement” to fail. I think that Katleen Sebelius still has a job because the president like to be surrounded by glad-handed yes men who will never dare to challenge his authority, offer constructive criticism, or even off disagree with him.

@djc91ua, as to your first post, the lack of accountability throughout this whole administration is a severe problem. No one seems to know anything about what is going on. But I guess it works for them, that way no one is responsible for anything that goes on.

For your second comment. You hit a dead on bulls eye. He obviously wants to be pandered to and told how wonderful he is. He wants to be told those things, but evidently not what the people in his administration are doing because he “appears” to be oblivious to what is going on around him or what his people are doing. I guess if you don’t know, you can’t be held accountable.

@epharmd

I do not disagree that The F35 program managers and contractors should be help accountable. I think you will find, that most military officials are held accountable for their actions. But, to call the F35 program a boondoggle reflects your ignorance of defense platforms. There is no doubt that some of the benefits of the ACA are good for some Americans. However, the overarching program is not good for the whole of America. That may be precocious; time will tell.

@jagsted ….so what military officials exactly have been held accountable for the outrageous cost overruns of the F35? That happen to be hundreds, wait thousands, of times more than the ACA web site.

I would suggest that while my military intelligence might be lacking, it is dwarfed by your health care knowledge deficit.

@epharmd Military officials are held accountable all the time, and summarily reassigned, retired, or admonished. The article at the this shows the current PM undergoing scrutiny by the Presidentially appointed USD (ATL).

The entire lifecycle of the F35 is 1.5 Trillion (over 55 years). The ACA is not just a failing website. The program itself is costing taxpayers and estimated $1.7T per decade. That is five times more than the F35 program (according to Wallstreet analyst Paul Ausick).

I am by no means a health care expert, and do not really care to be. I am an educated, middle class American that values free markets, being able to choose what I pay for, and that accepts the risks of the decisions that I make.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/25/us-lockheed-fighter-idUSBRE99O15220131025

@jagsted Well, thanks for the link. You answered by question on who is being held accountable for the F35 boondoggle. NOBODY!

The issue here is should Sebelius be fired. No body has been fired to date for the insane boondoggle of the F35. Nor should Sebelius.

I am an educated middle class American the sees the US spending its way to oblivion on military programs that do nothing but to support the military industrial complex.

I want to live in a society that when you get hit by a bus, I do not want to pay for it, but you are required to have insurance or (better) we have a national health care system to take care of you.

I never said anyone wasn’t held accountable–they answer to Congress like everyone else. I hope you never get hit by a bus and I hope you never are forced to speak Arabic or Chinese.

Insurance companies are no different that defense contractors–it is all about money. You complain about the military industrial complex; just imagine the government running healthcare.

Sebelius is a political appointee (it is a temp job) as are the pentagon appointees. It is up to the President to fire them. Who do you hold accountable?

Here is an example: http://www.pogo.org/blog/2013/11/pentagon-police-boss-misused-employees-report-finds.html

@jagsted So your example of accountability is some low level Pentagon Dweeb for the trillion dollar cost overruns of the F35? Perfect. That is why the HHS sec should be fired for a 100 million web site screw up? Now that is pure military intelligence.

Speaking Arabic or Chinese? Sounds like justification for another needless weapon system. More military intelligence that has got us in our current $ mess.

Oh, and don’t get a flu shot, is causes brain damage.

You should lay off the drugs, they can cause paranoia.

@jagsted I will take your low level dweeb and raise you one.
Looks like HHS found a scapegoat.
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/top-health-it-official-leaving-hhs-95233.html

Now, will you go back to your fox hole? I have Arabic lessons to catch up on.

OK guys listen —

The firm that was hired for this job was hand picked in a no-bid contract by Michelle Obama.

Not only is healthcare.gov the biggest policy disaster since the Great Depression, it’s also the living, breathing embodiment of crony capitalism at its finest (well, worst).

In a competitive market, this site could have been created for 1/4 as much money, in 1/3 as much time, with 1/10 the staff they used to create it — and instead of being subcontracted to zillions of different agencies attempting to build out individual sections of the website, it would have been done in a unified framework by a single team.

Listen– I’m not talking out of my ass here. I work in managed IT services. I am friends with dozens of sysadmins, network security adminstrators, DBAs, and software engineers. PLEASE. Do not misunderstand:

This. Site. Is. A. Fiasco.

Sebelius is the buffer, the punching bag, and completely incompetent. She should have never been placed in charge of something like this. Who should have? Uh, I don’t know, maybe literally anyone who knows anything about software development and web programming?

This is not about bugs. People will say “google deployments have bugs, M$ operating systems and deployments have bugs, etc” but this is way beyond that. You can actually read the source code online. It is disastrous. Completely un-formatted, and completely impossible to debug when something goes wrong. The entire database needs to be loaded client-side to begin working. It’s a nightmare.

The only way to fix this site is to completely rebuild it from the ground up, but as stubborn as Obama is, you can bet the farm he’ll just have it limp along and be shoddily reconstructed over the course of months or years of horrific failure.

There is zero excuse for this travesty.

Pharm
I am late to this party (been really busy)but feel the need to just point out that at least the F-35 FLIES !!
Can’t say the same for the website and the website design is not cutting edge technology, just using existing ,proven methods to do something for a different customer.No test pilots are risking their lives.Surely you can see a little difference.The utter incompetence is simply beyond anything I could imagine and I have really good imagination I think.
I think Huebush actually overstated the difficulty but where the Government is concerned let no possibility of waste go unused.