Can’t say I’m surprised Obama’s petty politics and obsession with Republicans got him into this mess.

Via Politico:

“[Fixing HealthCare.gov] is obviously a priority over getting their interface ready to go, but the Web brokers — like other stakeholders — aren’t really getting any info from HHS either,” said Venable attorney Chris Condeluci, who’s working with Web brokers.

Facing such intense opposition from congressional Republicans, the administration was in a bunker mentality as it built the enrollment system, one former administration official said. Officials feared that if they called on outsiders to help with the technical details of how to run a commerce website, those companies could be subpoenaed by Hill Republicans, the former aide said. So the task fell to trusted campaign tech experts.

Even as early as 2010, HealthCare.gov was bug-ridden, a harbinger of problems to come. But few read the tea leaves because the site had a small fraction of the traffic it would get in October 2013.

“The wheels were practically coming off the wagon at that point, which should have been a clue that anything more than this — a nicely branded site with a lot of information and not much interactivity — was going to be impossible,” the former official said.

HT: Ace