Top House Democrat Rips Darrell Issa For Spreading Lies About Healthcare.gov Website

Rep. Elijah E. Cummings is the top Democrat on the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee, and he is not letting Rep. Darrell Issa get away with telling baseless lies about healthcare.gov.

In an interview on Fox News, Issa claimed that the White House knew in advance that the website would fail. Issa saw a coverup, and said that White House Press Secretary Jay Carney is paid to say things that aren’t true. Issa said on Fox, “Jay Carney is paid to say things that aren’t so. But in this case, Todd Park and other people who knew the facts, who had to know the facts. And the facts were from documents we received from lead contractors that they slowed down to an unacceptable level at 1,100 users. Well, in fact, Todd Park was telling us that at 60,000 was the target, and at 250,000 they just couldn’t handle it. The truth was their goal wasn’t, according to documents, wasn’t even 60,000. Their goal was 10,000. They reached 1,100.”

Video of Rep. Issa on Fox News:

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Rep. Elijah Cummings fired back in a letter to Issa, “Based on information obtained by the Committee, it appears that you fundamentally misunderstood or mischaracterized the document you released to the press yesterday and that your accusations against Mr. Park and Mr. Carney are wholly unfounded. Given that your staff participated in Mr. Chao’s transcribed interview last week—before you issued your press release and conducted your television interview—it is unclear why you did not disclose the information Mr. Chao provided, but instead chose to accuse Mr. Park and Mr. Carney of misleading the American people.”

Rep. Cummings also released a part of the testimony of Mr. Park that proves that Darrell Issa was once again lying,

Q: So how many concurrent users—what’s the maximum number of concurrent users that the system could handle in a test prior to the October 1st launch?

A: The extrapolated figure that we came up with—because in the last remaining weeks, we threw some additional resources of capacity. The test was somewhere around—it was somewhere between 48,000 and 58,000, what we call, virtual users. They’re not real live people in there. They’re accounts that are set up, you know, doing different things in the system. …

Q: And you said that 48,000 to 58,000 virtual users could get through the allocation—

A: Inside the FFM application, the online application for enrollment.

Rep. Cummings concluded his letter by criticizing Issa for going on Fox News and not disclosing the accurate information, “This is not the first time you have accused a White House official of being a “paid liar,” a practice that several of your Republican colleagues have condemned. Given that your staff participated in Mr. Chao’s transcribed interview last week—before you issued your press release and conducted your television interview—it is unclear why you did not disclose the information Mr. Chao provided, but instead chose to accuse Mr. Park and Mr. Carney of misleading the American people.”

It is no surprise to anyone that Darrell Issa is trying to use the ACA website to create a new Obama scandal, and lying everytime that he opens his mouth. The good news is that Democrats aren’t letting him get away with spreading his consistent half and untruths. Issa has been discredited by being caught in so many lies that only a partisan propaganda shop like Fox News should be willing to have him on the air.

Rep. Issa is going to keep lying, but Democrats will be here to smack him down. Issa wants the same thing that he always. He is trying to manufacture a smoking gun that will allow him to pursue impeaching President Obama. Darrell Issa’s latest attempt to drum up an Obama scandal is fading with a whimper thanks to Rep. Elijah Cummings.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association