Media Matters recently explained how Republican governors’ decisions not to set up state exchanges for Obamacare put more of a burden on the federal government. At the same time, Media Matters pointed out, Fox has consistently deflected the blame that extra burden has played in the problems of the Affordable Care rollout away from the GOP. In his softball interview with Congressman Steve Scalise (R-FL) two days ago, Neil Cavuto joined his guest in pinning all the blame on the Obama administration and overlooking any role the Republicans may have played.
Scalise told Cavuto, “Millions of Americans are asking 'Where did $500 million of taxpayer money go that built this failed website?' Look, I used to program computers for a living. This is not some glitch, this is a national embarrassment. Facebook costs less money to build than this and they have over a billion users.”
Scalise said he would like to ask HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, “How could this website be such a debacle? They had 3+ plus years to get this working. …This is like Flowers.com not being ready for Valentine’s Day.”
Cavuto added, “Well, they say to their Apple analogy that it’s huge demand for a product that they couldn’t really have factored in. Now, Apple is always ready with that kind of demand and has products standing by. And people are happily willing to pay a premium for it. Not so here. What do you think’s going on?”
“I think Apple might be suing for defamation of character,” Scalise joked. “You might have to wait in a little bit of a line because it’s a good product, and when you get the product, it actually works. This is a product that doesn’t work. …I tried to sign in, I got kicked out 4 times over 2 hours.”
Cavuto joined in the joking. “You got kicked out? Well, you’re a Congressman.”
Scalise continued, “The fact that they’re going to fine people through the IRS for not signing up on a website that doesn’t even work. The President has got to acknowledge this thing is a failure. It’s not something that you can just say is a glitch. It’s a debacle.”
Cavuto did a little more GOP PR, this time for the shutdown: “Wouldn’t it be ironic, Congressman, if in the end they do delay it if for no other reason than they have to because they don’t have their ducks in order? And that was what this shutdown, this whole debt crisis was about. You guys lost PR-wise on that, and now ultimately that might be what happens.”
Scalise said, “You know, the private sector, they would have fired people and the company would have gone out of business by now.”
“That’s interesting,” Cavuto replied.