Joe Barton: “Thank you. I want to recognize your leadership on the Republican Study Committee and the Health Task Force on preparing…”

“Thank you. I want to recognize your leadership on the Republican Study Committee and the Health Task Force on preparing the legislation that you just referred to. I am the past chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, the past ranking member of that committee; and when the Affordable Care Act came through the Congress, I was the senior Republican on the committee of jurisdiction. {time} 1715 I don't want to tell you and the American people that I told you so, but I told you so. We knew that this wasn't going to work. For example, we had a hearing today about the Affordable Care Act in the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. It was focusing on the security of the Web site and on all of the problems and when the administration knew about those problems and what they did or didn't do. In the course of that hearing, Congressman Cory Gardner of Colorado was asking the senior civil servant, Mr. Chao from CMS, some questions. The gentleman from CMS just kind of, off the cuff, said, You know that 60 to 70 percent of the programs haven't been developed yet. Congressman Gardner followed up and said, What are you talking about? He said, All we are working on right now is the Web site to get people registered. We haven't completed that portion of the program about billing, that portion about accounting for treatment, how we interact with the hospitals and the patients and the doctors.…”