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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCompany Behind Troubled Obamacare Website Donated Heavily To Republicans In 2012
Republicans new Obamacare attack line hinges on allegations that the contractor in charge of building the disastrous healthcare.gov website landed the gig through sweetheart deals from the Obama administration.
But according to Federal Election Commission records, that companys PAC gave more to House Republicans than House Democrats during the 2012 cycle including a $2,000 check for the GOPs chief scandal investigator, Oversight Committee Chair Darrell Issa. Whats more, executives of CGI Federal personally gave more than twice as much to GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney than to President Obama. The contractor has also feasted on more than $2.4 billion worth of IT work dating back to the early Bush Administration.
So far, none of that has stopped the Republican National Congressional Committee from suggesting CGI netted hundreds of millions of dollars to create the dysfunctional website because of its ties to the White House
On Wednesday, the NRCC blasted the Republican National Committees email list heralding a petition it had started that would urge Congress to investigate CGI-Obama ties. The email noted the importance of finding out, among other pressing questions, How did [CGI] get contracted to do it?
Twenty-eight hours later, the NRCC had its answer. NRCC Investigation of HealthCare.gov Finds Insider Deals Worth Over $400 Million, the next missive declared. The email itself doesnt reference any evidence of insider deals, but the conservative Daily Caller has been building the case for weeks by noting the company had given donations to Obama and other Democrats and that its executives had visited the White House regularly.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/stevefriess/company-behind-troubled-obamacare-website-donated-heavily-to
gopiscrap
(23,761 posts)Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)Nearly 20 million Americans have now experienced the broken Obamacare website first hand. But Ben Simo, a past president of the Association for Software Testing, found something more than a cumbersome login or a blank screenclear evidence of subpar coding on the site.
In mid-October, he went to Healthcare.gov to help a family member get insurance, only to find his progress blocked. When he investigated the cause, he discovered that one part of the website had created so much cookie tracking data that it appeared to exceed the sites capacity to accept his login information. Thats the mark of a fractured development team.
Read more: Traffic Didnt Crash the Obamacare Site Alone. Bad Coding Did Too. | TIME.com http://swampland.time.com/2013/10/24/traffic-didnt-crash-the-obamacare-site-alone-bad-coding-did-too/#ixzz2jEeo8JRG
2naSalit
(86,646 posts)I watched an hour of the MHP show last Saturday where she ferreted out what happened there. One of her guests described how the Bu$h cabal (and this is yet another example of how we are still paying through the nose for all the BS they pulled and set us up for major fails of this type) placed into law a policy whereby no small contractors are eligible to bid for these contracted (no bid usually) jobs and the large contractors can sue for the contracts so it comes down to "...who has the best lawyers..." as to who gets the contract.
Soooo, I;m sure the OP is spot on and with this caveat of how/why these moles end up being able to sabotage the whole web site initiative and not much can be done about it until after the fact... which is what has been the pattern since Obama took office. Many Bushies are still in place where they were imbedded before he left office... they cannot be removed or replaced by political influence and many are life-time appointments. Yet another thing that needs to be changed like a soiled diaper.
The link to the MHP discussion (over several segments) about this:
http://tinyurl.com/ptzla4p
librechik
(30,674 posts)burrowed-in Bushies have caused endless trouble for the Obama administration, and nothing can be done about it. All without a whisper of coverage from the media, who pretend these PuKKKe assholes are Obama's responsibility--and they do it anonymously, so nobody knows where else to point the finger.
Talk about Secret Government! It's devouring our first black president as we speak
FarCenter
(19,429 posts)On lobbyists "If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, screw their women and then vote against them, you have no business being up here."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_M._Unruh
IronLionZion
(45,452 posts)not sure how I feel about that
Puzzledtraveller
(5,937 posts)Outside of that it's politics as usual.
AnotherMcIntosh
(11,064 posts)840high
(17,196 posts)RiverNoord
(1,150 posts)between the company's donations to Repubs and Dems - a bit, but not much. What's really sad is that a mid-sized IT company has a PAC. If we don't amend the Constitution to severely restrict business money from flowing into politics, our republic is lost.
Roland99
(53,342 posts)Old and In the Way
(37,540 posts)That may be very telling....I find it hard to believe that this administration would have entrusted their most important program with a developer who was clearly aligned with the Republicans. I wonder how much business they did with the private health care ins. sectors?
2naSalit
(86,646 posts)It explains the problem well. It's a little long and not all is revealed in the first segment but well worth watching to understand how this happened:
http://tinyurl.com/ptzla4p
VanillaRhapsody
(21,115 posts)Did they donate to Romney and Issa...AFTER they were awarded the contract?
AndyA
(16,993 posts)I'm sure there's more to this than we know. It's a website, it has issues. So does Facebook and Twitter. They'll get it fixed, and it will work as intended.
I hope CGI is excluded from future government work, paid for by taxpayers, because they obviously are in conflict politically with most of America.
Joey Liberal
(5,526 posts)One of their faves is Sen Inhofe (R-Caveman).
RiverNoord
(1,150 posts)a company which generates a great deal of revenue from government contracts using profits from these contracts to bribe - I mean donate to - politicians, who frequently get into office primarily on the basis of the amount of money they are able to raise for their campaigns.
This is not democracy - it's pure crony capitalism, and it'll be the death of our republic.
Berlum
(7,044 posts)We might well have suspected OCCULT Republicon Black Ops strategery at the root of the FAIL.
Figures. This will come back to bite them in their diapers, one hopes.
Sheepshank
(12,504 posts)Given that they were writing convoluted software for ACA, wouldn't regular visits to update and make changes be a requirement?
Kingofalldems
(38,458 posts)Lint Head
(15,064 posts)Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)and it was a company whose allegiance was to republicans.
The code link I gave showed the tech side of their responsibility.
I'm sure some tech company with democratic leanings could have done the job better.
thanks for your link I missed it.
FarCenter
(19,429 posts)http://www.cgi.com/en/overview
Meet CGI Federal, the company behind the botched launch of HealthCare.gov
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/10/16/meet-cgi-federal-the-company-behind-the-botched-launch-of-healthcare-gov/
Most big companies do government contracts through a subsidiary that can meet the government regulations.
B Calm
(28,762 posts)bonniebgood
(943 posts)Hell to the NO, That would require a spine like Alan Grayson.
Ronald Reagan said: No repub can speak ill of another repub.
Democrats said: No dems can speak Ill of repubs, Only democrats.
Behind EVERY Government FAILURE there's a repuke sticking a cog in the wheel.
Coyotl
(15,262 posts)Better to just let the asshats flail away so people see how stupid they really are.
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2vkzqeo&s=5#.UnJsiiS4n7B
It doesn't require a spine to make unfounded, conspiratorial accusations, it requires a huge dose of stupid.
AnotherMcIntosh
(11,064 posts)ohheckyeah
(9,314 posts)tech people AS EMPLOYEES to handle the website? It has to be outsourced?
Day after day, I get the message that the site is down for maintenance. It's absurd.
jsr
(7,712 posts)ohheckyeah
(9,314 posts)I should have known that.
librechik
(30,674 posts)Ironically, performed by the GOP on its own cursed Heritage Foundation plan. If only a President Lindsey Graham had suggested it! Then the gross incompetence of these weedwhackers would just be ignored instead of blown up into an anti-President pogrom. Their strategy has always included gross incompetence as its biggest weapon.
Do you think the PuKKKes have got themselves twisted around enough yet?
grahamhgreen
(15,741 posts)Hubert Flottz
(37,726 posts)of any stripe.
Rex
(65,616 posts)Imagine that!
Joey Liberal
(5,526 posts)So, morale is not good at CGI these days, except for their well paid senior execs.
indepat
(20,899 posts)health-care's website up is tantamount to self-flagellation. Good god, can there be any surprise the website was fu*ked up from the git-go?
Historic NY
(37,451 posts)systems too.
Joey Liberal
(5,526 posts)Go figure! lol
Hestia
(3,818 posts)effect the success of health reform."
All is going according to plan, sir
SoCalDem
(103,856 posts)when it comes to hiring pivotal people. I wonder just how many of the NSA people at the heart of the issues we are faced with there, are GWB holdovers.
These days there are NO truly non-partisan government workers. Everyone has a bias, and to think that Pres.O could get truly unbiased, fair treatment from a workforce that contained saboteurs, was naive at best & careless at worst.
The "You Look Mahhhhvelous" approach to hiring/retaining of prior employees in the executive branch, is dangerous. Sometimes it is better to BE good, instead of just look good.
We get no "extra-credit" for hiring republicans or wannabees left over from prior admins, and only open ourselves up to sabotage.
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)The Wizard
(12,545 posts)should know by now is that Republicans hate normal people and will use whatever means necessary to harm normal people.
catrose
(5,068 posts)azurnoir
(45,850 posts)they let the fox design the henhouse? well what could go wrong with that?
amerciti001
(158 posts)Hubert Flottz
(37,726 posts)ASAP!