MSNBC's Ed Schultz on Half Billion Dollar ObamaCare Website: 'It's on the Cheap'

 

According to liberal MSNBC host Ed Schultz, the ObamaCare website, which cost nearly a half billion dollars, was created "on the cheap." During a rant on Thursday's Ed Show, the cable anchor attempted to blame congressional Republicans for the site's problems: "Republicans refuse to authorize requests from the Obama administration for additional funding to do it the right way. Instead it's on the cheap." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

He mocked GOP members as complainers, railing, "This is coming from the party that did everything in their power to sabotage this law from the get-go." Schultz could barely force himself to admit the website has problems, managing, "No one is denying that the obvious issues are there with the Affordable Health Care Act's website...It is not the law. It's the glitches."

According to the anchor, success is just around the corner: "We've got smart people. If we fund this and resource it properly, we will get this fixed."

Far from being "cheap," the ObamaCare website has cost $394 million as of March 2013, according to a Government Accountability Office report. The spending has continued since then. 

On MSNBC, Wednesday, reporter Kristen Welker wondered about GOP culpability: "So does Congress, do your colleagues bear any responsibility for this rocky rollout for refusing that [website] funding?"

Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn retorted, "I would remind you that most website developers say an aggregator website, such as what healthcare.gov is, could be built easily for a half a million dollars. They have spent a half a billion dollars.

A partial transcript of the October 24 Ed Show segment is below:

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5:37

ED SCHULTZ: [Mocking critics of the ObamaCare website] "Nothing works. Nothing at all. We have no solutions. It's all just -- the world is just terrible." How many of these critics do you think have firsthand experience when it comes to rolling out a business? This is coming from the party that did everything in their power to sabotage this law from the get-go. Republicans refuse to authorize requests from the Obama administration for additional funding to do it the right way. Instead it's on the cheap. Republican governors across the country have chosen to opt out of Medicaid expansion which will leave millions of poor Americans uninsured. Republicans shut the government down.

...

SCHULTZ: The disservice has been the lack of cooperation by Republicans who have fought this President and denied elections. No one is denying that the obvious issues are there with the Affordable Health Care Act's website. It, you know, it is not the law. It's the glitches. All of this is going to get fixed. All the sabotaging, self-anointing roll out experts need to take a back step for just a moment and say, you know what? 'We've got smart people. If we fund this and resource it properly, we will get this fixed.' But fixing is not what the Republican Party is all about.