{"id":19134,"date":"2013-10-11T13:55:30","date_gmt":"2013-10-11T17:55:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=19134"},"modified":"2013-10-11T13:55:30","modified_gmt":"2013-10-11T17:55:30","slug":"fire-sebelius","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/19134\/fire-sebelius\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire Sebelius?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tom Bevan<\/a> thinks so.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny corporation that allowed a COO to mismanage a new product line as important to its image as the Affordable Care Act is to Obama\u2019s would be contemplating their severance package,\u201d writes the Executive Editor of RealClearPolitics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that Republicans haven\u2019t called for Sebelius\u2019 scalp should tell Democrats all they need to know about how much conservatives think she is hurting Obamacare\u2019s cause. If the president cares about rescuing his signature policy initiative, he should consider putting it under new management right away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though cathartic, I\u2019m not sure Bevan\u2019s idea helps the GOP all that much.<\/p>\n

True, if Obama fired Sebelius it would touch off a huge confirmation battle over her successor as Secretary of Health and Human Services, the agency overseeing Obamacare\u2019s implementation. But since Democrats control the Senate, confirmation would be won eventually.<\/p>\n

Better, I think, to schedule a series of high-profile congressional hearings to grill Sebelius, her deputies and the contractors responsible for the glitch-heavy<\/a> federal insurance exchange website. Sebelius is fast-becoming the bureaucratic face of Obamacare \u2013 let her try to defend it.<\/p>\n

The tone coming from House GOP members should be sharp but measured. Already, Speaker John Boehner <\/a>has used a line that would be devastating to repeat to every pro-Obamacare witness at every hearing:<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can we tax people for not buying a product from a website that doesn\u2019t work?\u201d<\/p>\n

Then there are the simple questions Sebelius couldn\u2019t answer in a cringe-inducing appearance on The Daily Show.<\/p>\n

Host Jon Stewart<\/a> \u2013 an Obamacare supporter who thinks America deserves a single-payer system \u2013 got no good answers from Sebelius about why Healthcare.gov stinks and businesses get a one year mandate delay but individuals do not.<\/p>\n

In response, Sebelius said \u2013 without a shred of evidence \u2013 that the site is getting better, and that individuals can delay the mandate, so long as they pay a fine.<\/p>\n

If that\u2019s the best she can do with a friendly host, imagine the possibilities under good cross-examination at a House hearing.<\/p>\n

No, Obama shouldn\u2019t fire Sebelius until House Republicans get a chance to turn up the heat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tom Bevan thinks so. \u201cAny corporation that allowed a COO to mismanage a new product line as important to its image as the Affordable Care Act is to Obama\u2019s would be contemplating their severance package,\u201d writes the Executive Editor of RealClearPolitics. \u201cThe fact that Republicans haven\u2019t called for Sebelius\u2019 scalp should tell Democrats all they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[84,729,3007,3308,2154,1829,728,24,35,42],"class_list":["post-19134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-congress","tag-daily-show","tag-exchange","tag-health","tag-house-gop","tag-insurance","tag-jon-stewart","tag-obama","tag-obamacare","tag-sebelius"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19134"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19138,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19134\/revisions\/19138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}