In a normal world, rampant errors or a failure to fulfill one’s responsibilities often results in some sort of consequence, whether it’s a warning or scolding from the boss, or even losing one’s job. But not in the Washington, D.C. And especially not within the Obama White House.
On Pennsylvania Avenue, accountability is a dirty word.
Throughout President Obama’s first term and now into his second, the American people have watched administration officials pass the buck, with not a single person taking responsibility for wrongdoings in a White House that has run rampant with scandal — from the Department of Justice hacking into journalists’ phones to the terror attack in Benghazi, Libya, that left four valiant Americans dead.
As the country mourned the death of those four, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, America turned to see who would ultimately be held accountable for an event that ended lives too short. But not a single person to this date has bear the responsibility, even after a host of hearings on Capitol Hill and pressure from Congressional Republicans.
Accountability, like a swear word in your mama’s house, is a word that never left President Obama’s mouth.
America is witnessing yet another instance of the White House’s failure to hold its officials accountable. Now more than three weeks into the launch of the health insurance exchanges created through the Affordable Care, healthcare.gov is still laden with glitches and malfunctions.
Obamacare has been the signature piece of legislation championed by the President — it even bears his name — and yet the Department of Health and Human Services failed to create a successful product despite being given more than enough time.
Contractors tasked with building the site housing the federal exchange testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee to figure out what went wrong and exactly who’s to blame. And as question after question was asked, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services — an entity of the Department of Health and Human Services — emerged as a constant.
CMS, as demonstrated in the hearing, pushed to launch healthcare.gov on Oct. 1 despite limited beta testing, or any testing at all. Over and over again, the contractors blamed the federal government for the glitches and last-minute changes to a website far from ready to go live.
But who’s being held accountable?
Republican lawmakers are calling on Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to resign, including Tea Party darling Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). Others say she should be fired.
But in an administration that won’t hold anyone accountable, it’s merely a dream. There’s that dirty word again.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) echoed the White House’s sentiments, too, during her weekly press conference with reporters Wednesday. When asked about healthcare.gov’s failure, she called it “unacceptable” but never once said anyone should be held accountable.
“Just fix it,” Pelosi said over and over.
No mention of that dirty word.
But when does the buck stop? When do the consequences finally catch up to the failed actions? And when is it finally OK to mutter that one forbidden word and hold someone accountable for the err of their ways?
It’s time to wipe clean the slate of that dirty word and hold people accountable.
