Thursday's
"monkey court" posing as a House Energy and Commerce Committee Obamacare oversight hearing ostensibly focused on the
contractors responsible for creating the HealthCare.gov website, but what it of course really was was an attempt by Republicans to pretend they care about the implementation of the law they've tried to repeal more than 40 times, with
a good bit of administration bashing thrown in.
Republicans pressed four contractors appearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on why they had told Congress in September that everything was on track, only to go off the rails in October. GOP lawmakers said both the contractors and the administration had not been forthcoming about the looming failure of the pivotal piece of President Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement. [...]
Committee chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich) said the central question was accountability.
“Over the months leading up to the Oct. 1 launch, top administration officials and lead contractors appeared before this committee, looked us in the eye and assured us repeatedly that everything was on track,” Upton said. “Except that it wasn’t, as we now know too well.”
None of which really helps get HealthCare.gov work better, or make it easier for would-be consumers to get the health insurance they've been waiting for since the law passed. Of course not. That's not why Republicans had this hearing, or any of the inevitable multitude of future ones.