Sebelius won’t quit Cabinet over ObamaCare rollout woes, says brother

Embattled Heath and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will not resign over glitches in the ObamaCare website despite Republican calls for her to be fired, say the Cabinet member’s brother. 

Donald Gilligan told told The New York Times that “the fact that people are calling for her head does not surprise her or alarm her particularly.”

“I don’t think you resign in the middle of a fight.”

{mosads}“The White House is smart enough to know that if she steps aside or they ask her to resign, they will never get anybody else confirmed,” Ellen Gilligan, Sebelius’s sister, told the paper. “Plus, I don’t think they hold her responsible.”  

Republicans have repeatedly called for Sebelius’s head after the rocky rollout of the insurance exchanges servicing the president’s signature healthcare reform law. Users have reported long wait times, error messages and buggy code as they attempt to shop for health insurance coverage.

“There must be accountability for this astounding failure and waste of taxpayer money. We’re seeing more than just a ‘glitch’ or two; this is systemic failure,” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement. 

“The Obama administration had red flags and warning signs that ObamaCare wasn’t ready for primetime, but Sebelius and company ignored them, flipped the switch and watched as the site crashed. Sebelius abused the trust and tax dollars of the American people. If this were a company and not the government, she’d already be gone. She should be fired.”

Earlier this week, former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs also said that someone should be fired over the ObamaCare rollout.

“I hope they are working day and night to get this done,” Gibbs told MSNBC. “And when they get it fixed, I hope they fire some people that were in charge of making sure this thing was supposed to work.”

After those remarks, White House press secretary Jay Carney insisted Sebieus retained the president’s support.

“The secretary does have the full confidence of the president,” Carney said. 

“She, like everyone else in this effort, is focused on our number-one priority, which is making the implementation of the Affordable Care Act work well. People are working 24/7 to address the problems and isolate them and fix them when it comes to the website and enrollment issues.”

On Tuesday, the president told a Des Moines television station that the website “had way more glitches than I think are acceptable.”