Rubio said there has been no effort to provide details about efforts to fix the website. Rubio bill would delay Obamacare

Sen. Marco Rubio said Tuesday that he will introduce legislation that would delay the individual mandate under Obamacare and he slammed the White House for the problems with the enrollment website.

“How are you going to go after people next year using the IRS to punish them if the thing you’re forcing them to buy isn’t available for them,” Rubio (R-Fla.) said on Fox News’s “Fox and Friends.”


“So the law I’m going to introduce basically delays that requirement until the [Government Accountability] Office has certified that it’s been up and running and effectively working for six months consecutive,” Rubio added. “I think that’s a prudent approach given the problems that it’s facing by the White House’s own admission.”

Rubio also hit the Obama administration for a lack of transparency on Obamacare, saying the White House is withholding information so people won’t see the “ugly things” of the law.

“I think what they’re worried about is increased criticism of the law if they open it up and show people all the ugly things going on in the implementation,” Rubio said.

The Florida senator said there has been no effort to provide details about efforts to fix the site.

“They’ve argued now that they’re going to have this tech surge where they’re going to bring all these experts in to fix these websites,” Rubio said. “They won’t tell us who exactly they’re bringing in, and they won’t tell us how much they’re spending on it.”

Rubio argued that the lack of information coming from the administration only adds to the “doubt” of the law and its future.

“The fact is there is no transparency. They’re not sharing accurate numbers as to how well or not well it’s working, how many people have been able to enroll and receive it or not. They’re not being transparent, which is just adding more and more doubt to this entire process.”

Clarification: The story was updated to reflect that the delay Rubio is proposing for the individual mandate would be for at least six months after the date that the GAO has certified the federal health care website is working properly.