Rep. Marsha Blackburn, vice chairwoman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee probing the fumbled rollout of the Affordable Care Act, has ripped into Rep. Frank Pallone for calling her inquiry a "monkey court."
"[He's] out of line . . . the language is inappropriate and wrong," Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
Editor’s Note: New 'Obamacare Survival Guide' Reveals Dangers Ahead for Your Healthcare
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"What we are trying to do is get to the bottom of what has happened with about a half a billion taxpayer dollars and a lot of wasted time and energy by the American people who went to the website and the thing doesn't work."
Pallone, a New Jersey Democrat, exploded in anger during the committee's Thursday hearing on the problems of the HealthCare.gov website when he was asked to yield to Rep. Joe Barton, a Texas Republican and the committee's chairman.
"I will not yield to this monkey court," Pallone roared, adding that Republicans "don't have clean hands."
Blackburn said the committee is concerned that the website compromises the privacy of all who sign up.
"It basically says that everything that you enter into the Obamacare website can be used against you and can be used by the federal government for other purposes," she said.
Next week, she said, the committee plans to grill Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who is under fire for the ongoing glitches plaguing the website.
"We would turn to her and say, 'Look, you forgot privacy laws . . . security laws, cyberlaws that are all being broken. How are you justifying this?" she said.
"How do you justify agreeing to move forward with a site that your contractors are telling you that it's not ready to be launched and you launch it anyway? Who made these decisions?"
Editor’s Note: New 'Obamacare Survival Guide' Reveals Dangers Ahead for Your Healthcare
Blackburn said the Democrats' ultimate goal is a single-payer plan and "destruction" of the American healthcare marketplace.
"We're going to keep fighting for it and before it's all over, I'm sure it's going to be George Bush's fault," she said. "They try to blame everything on him."
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