Sen. Mark Kirk cleverly tried to ask Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Administrator Marilyn Tavenner this afternoon why she didn’t ask healthcare.gov creators WTF was up with the site before she testified at today’s Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions hearing. No one else in the hearing got his joke.
“I was just thinking of a phone call that might have happened while you were getting ready for this hearing,” Kirk pondered. ” ‘Hey Bikram, it’s Carolyn, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, on my uh, on my website’…. as we would say in the Navy…”
“What?” someone can be heard asking in the background.
After more muffled conversation in the background, Kirk awkwardly says, “WTF, yeah, its the, uh, yeah, the uh, it would be like that?… yeah so…
“After hundreds of millions of dollars you should have something. I wonder what Mr. Roach is driving right now,” Kirk adds, referring to Michael Roach, Chief Executive Officer of CGI, the company that created the healthcare website.
“Probably something really nice after the amount of money you’ve given to him,” Kirk says, recovering.
Perhaps Tavenner was confused because her name is Marilyn, not Carolyn. Either way the look on her face during Kirk’s speech is priceless.
Watch the awkward exchange below.
The article has been updated to provide a more detailed version of the interaction.
